
mass Ft C I 

tokJALns± 



OFFICIAT, DONATION. 



OFFICERS OF THE STATE. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

(Terms expire the first Monday in January, 1907.) 
Bryant B. Brooks Governor Cheyenne 

A. J. Mather Private Secretary Cheyenne 

Fenimore Chatterton Secretary of State Cheyenne 

Curtis L. Hinkle Deputy Secretary Cheyenne 

William C. Irvine State Treasurer Cheyenne 

Fred B. Sheldon Deputy State Treasurer Cheyenne 

LeRoy Grant State Auditor Cheyenne 

Frank J. Niswander Deputy State Auditor Cheyenne 

Thomas T. Tynan Supt. Public Instruction Cheyenne 

Lillian Mason Deputy Superintendent . Cheyenne 

CONGRESSIONAL. 

Francis E. Warren, U. S. Senator. .Term expires Mch. 4, '07. . .Cheyenne 
Clarence D. Clark, U. S. Senator. . .Term expires Mch. 4, '11. . . Evanston 
Frank W. Mondell, Representati ve. Term expires Mch. 4, '07. .. Newcastle 

JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

SUPREME COURT, CHEYENNE. 

Charles N. Potter, Chief Justice. .Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1911 

Cyrus Beard, Justice Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1913 

Josiah A. VanOrsdel, Justice Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1907 

Wm. H. Kelly, Clerk Sup. Ct Appointive. At pleasure of the Court 

DISTRICT JUDGES. 

Name. District. Term Expires. Postoffice. 

Richard H. Scott First. . . .First Monday in January, '09. .Cheyenne 

Chas. E. Carpenter. . .Second. .First Monday in January, '09. . .Laramie 

David H. Craig Third. . .First Monday in January, '11 ... Rawlins 

Carroll H. Parmelee. .Fourth. .First Monday in January, '11. .. .Buffalo 

STATE HOARD OF LAW EXAMINERS. 

PostofRce. 

John W. Lacey, President Cheyenne 

Charles W. Burdick, Secretary .Cheyenne 

Charles E. Blydenburgh Rawlins 

Nellis E. Corthell. Laramie 

Melvin Nichols Sundance 

STATE BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS. 

STATE BOARD OF LAND COMMISSIONERS — (ARID LAND BOARD). 

Bryant B. Brooks, President Fenimore Chatterton 

Thomas T. Tynan 

STATE BOARD OF SCHOOL LAND COMMISSIONERS. 

Bryant B. Brooks, President William C. Irvine 

Fenimore Chatterton Thomas T. Tynan 

COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS AND SECRETARY OF LAND BOARDS. 

Robert P. Fuller 

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION. 

William C. Irvine, President LeRoy Grant, Secretary 

Fenimore Chatterton 

STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES AND REFORM. 

Bryant B. Brooks, President LeRoy Grant 

Fenimore Chatterton Thomas T. Tynan, Secretary 

William C. Irvine Fred B. Sheldon, Clerk 

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER. 

LeRoy Grant 

PURE FOOD OFFICIALS. 

Henry G. Knight State Chemist Laramie 

Ross B. Moudy Assistant State Chemist Laramie 

Ed W. Burke Food and Oil Commissioner. . .Cheyenne 



OFFICERS OF THE STATE. 

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. 

(Terms expire the first Monday in January, 1907.) 



JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. 

SUPREME COURT, CHEYENNE. 

Charles N. Potter, Chief Justice. .Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1911 

Cyrus Beard, Justice Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1913 

Josiah A. VanOrsdel, Justice Term expires first Monday in Jan., 1907 

Win. H. Kelly, Clerk Sup. Ct Appointive. At pleasure of the Court 

DISTRICT JUDGES. 
Name. District. Term Expires. Postoffice. 

Richard H. Scott First. .. .First Monday in January, '09. .Cheyenne 

Chas. E. Carpenter. . .Second. .First Monday in January, '09. . .Laramie 

David H. Craig Third. . .First Monday in January, '11 ... Rawlins 

Carroll H. Parmelee. .Fourth. .First Monday in January, '11. .. .Buffalo 

STATE BOARD OF LAW EXAMINERS. 

Postoflice. 

John W. Lacey, President Cheyenne 

Charles W. Burdick, Secretary .Cheyenne 

Charles E. Blydenburgh Rawlins 

Nellis E. Corthell. . , Laramie 

Melvin Nichols Sundance 

STATE BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS. 

STATE BOARD OF LAND COMMISSIONERS — (ARID LAND BOARD). 

Bryant B. Brooks, President Fenimore Chatterton 

Thomas T. Tynan 

STATE BOARD OF SCHOOL LAND COMMISSIONERS. 

Bryant B. Brooks, President William C. Irvine 

Fenimore Chatterton Thomas T. Tynan 

COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC LANDS AND SECRETARY OF LAND BOARDS. 

Robert P. Fuller 

STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION. 

William C. Irvine, President LeRoy Grant, Secretary 

Fenimore Chatterton 

STATE BOARD OF CHARITIES AND REFORM. 

Bryant B. Brooks, President LeRoy Grant 

Fenimore Chatterton Thomas T. Tynan, Secretary 

William C. Irvine Fred B. Sheldon, Clerk 

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER. 

LeRoy Grant 

PURE FOOD OFFICIALS. 

Henry G. Knight State Chemist Laramie 

Ross B. Moudy Assistant State Chemist Laramie 

Ed W. Burke Food and Oil Commissioner. . .Cheyenne 



v^ 



IC " 







THE STATE 



OF 



WYOMING 



A Book of Reliable Information Published by Au- 
thority of the Eighth Legislature 



Edited and Published Under the Direction oe 

BRYANT B. BROOKS, 

Governor 



1905 



Sheridan, Wyoming: 
Sheridan Post Company, F&iutbrs. 
J 9°5 . . ., , 






FEB 26 liofa 
D.otO. 



(gONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Agriculture and Horticulture 79 

Albany County 12 

Banks and Interest 141 

Big Horn County 14 

Carbon County ■ 17 

Climate and Its Benefits 126 

Converse County 21 

Crook County 23 

Educational Advantages 122 

Elevation of Cities and Mountains 144 

Fremont County 25 

Frontier Celebration at Cheyenne 133 

How to Obtain a Right to Use Water in Wyoming 76 

Hunting and Fishing 130 

Johnson County 2j 

Laramie County 29 

Live Stock 49 

Manufactures 119 

Mineral Resources 84 

Natrona County 35 

Oil 112 

Preface 5 

Public Buildings 140 

Public Lands and Irrigation Projects 54 

Public Libraries 143 

Railroads and Stage Routes 136 

Sheridan County 37 

State Fair at Douglas 133 

State Lands 68 

Sweetwater County 39 



l-MoW<~ 



4 The State of Wyoming. 

Taxes and Public Indebtedness 141 

The State 9 

Uinta County 41 

Weston County 44 

Wyoming at a Glance 7 

Wyoming at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 135 

Wyoming Wants 139 

Yellowstone National Park 46 



REFACE 



In the preparation of this work upon the resources and 
possibilities of Wyoming, the editors have made no effort at 
high-sounding rhetoric or beautiful diction, simply contenting 
themselves with presenting, in a plain, straight-forward man- 
ner, such facts as they have been able to gather relative to the 
great agricultural and mineral possibilities of a state which 
has within its borders more undeveloped virgin soil than any 
other state in the Union. 

A special effort has been made to give succinct informa- 
tion relative to the gigantic irrigation projects already taken 
up under the reclamation service of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey, the vast enterprises under the Carey act, the big 
private irrigation enterprises, the agriculture of the state, the 
live stock industry, the geology in detail, and some of the 
openings for the investment of capital, as well as brief men- 
tion of the political, educational and social conditions that 
exist. 

To gather this information, it has been found necessary 
to call upon many of our prominent men for material. Wher- 
ever possible, proper credit has been given. To all those who 
have assisted in the work, thanks are returned. For other 
reward, they must look to an appreciative commonwealth. 



Wyoming at a Glance. 



Area, 97,890 square miles. 

Mean temperature, 44 degrees. 

Wool clip for 1905 worth $6,000,000. 

Peerless in its educational facilities. 

Area of coal land, 20,000 square miles. 

Cattle in 1905, 700,000, worth $14,000,000. 

Highest grade of soft coal known to man. 

Finest trout fishing known to mortal man. 

Mean elevation, 6,000 feet above sea level. 

Area covered with timber, 10,000,000 acres. 

Population (estimated), July 1, 1905, 120,000. 

Tons of stream tin have been mined and sold. 

Lofty mountains, rolling plains, vast plateaus. 

Iron, copper and coal enough for a vast empire. 

Five million head of sheep, valued at $17,500,000. 

Finest natural plaster on earth, manufactured at Laramie. 

Area subject to' irrigation and cultivation, 10,000,000 acres. 

Father of modern irrigation law and the reclamation act. 

Foremost in the application of the Carey desert land act. 

Hundreds of miles of railroad construction laid out for 
1905. 

Nutritious grasses, furnishing abundance of feed for live 
stock. 

Bank deposits in Wyoming, November 10, 1904, $8,846,- 
135-44- 

Amount received from rental of state lands, 1904, $178,- 
829.48. 

Thirteen counties, four judicial districts, four irrigation 
districts. 

One hundred cars per day of iron ore shipped from Sunrise 
to Pueblo. 

Natural gas in commercial quantities discovered south- 
west of Douglas. 

Average interest rate in Wyoming, about 8 per cent, in- 
dicating good business conditions and a strong demand for 



8 The; State; of Wyoming. 

money. Gilt-edged security, of course, brings money at a 
lower rate. 

In round numbers, the life insurance policies aggregate 
$5,000,000. 

Great opportunities for making money in sheep, cattle 
and horses. 

Greatest wonderland of the world, the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park. 

All the materials necessary for the manufacture of the 
finest glass. 

Coal mines are being operated in all the counties of the 
state, save one. 

Area subject to entry under the land laws of the United 
States, 48,000,000. 

The property of Wyoming is insured against fire to the 
extent of $7,000,000. 

Most famous rendezvouses in the world for large game; 
the hunter's paradise. 

Source of the Columbia, the Missouri, the Colorado, the 
Rio Grande and the Platte. 

One million acres of land now being reclaimed under gov- 
ernment and private enterprises. 

Vast iron deposits, second to no state in the Union, 
cheaply mined and high in value. 

Finest hot springs on earth, equal to Carlsbad in mineral 
properties, located at Thermopolis and Saratoga. 

All the mountain ranges contain gold and silver deposits, 
awaiting the hand of the prospector and the miner. 

Resources practically undeveloped. Greatest field on the 
continent for moneyed men to get in on the ground floor. 

Sulphur, asbestos and plumbago are among the minerals 
discovered in quantities considered commercially valuable. 

Grand opportunity for making money in the fattening 
of lambs upon field peas and alfalfa raised upon Wyoming soil. 

The rate of taxation throughout the state has decreased in 
the aggregate during the past ten years two mills on the dollar. 

Semi-anthracite coal has been discovered in Johnson 
County, and coking coal has been discovered in two or three 
localities, notably at Newcastle. 

County bonds have sold as low as 4 per cent ; school 
district bonds, 4^ per cent, and municipal bonds at the same 
price, showing in the most conclusive manner that the credit 
of the state is very high. 



THE STATE. 



Wyoming enjoys the unique distinction of having been 
under more rulers and more kinds of government than any 
other state in the entire Union. According to Dr. Grace 
Raymond Hebard's excellent work on "The Government of 
Wyoming," it has been under Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles 
L, Philip II., Philip III., Philip IV., Charles II., Philip V., 
Ferdinand IV., Charles III., Charles IV., Ferdinand VII. and 
Joseph Bonaparte of Spain ; Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., 
Charles IX., Henry III., .Henry IV., Louis XIII., Louis XIV., 
Louis XV., Louis XVI., the Republic and the Consulate of 
France, and Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Oregon, Utah, Ne- 
braska, Washington, Dakota, Idaho and Wyoming of Amer- 
ica. It is the only state that contains lands obtained from all 
four of our principal annexations which form the territory 
west of the Mississippi River. 

The state takes its name from the wonderful Wyoming 
Valley, in Pennsylvania, and is supposed to be a corruption of 
the Indian name "Maughwauwame," meaning large plains. 

Wyoming was organized as a territory July 25, 1868, from 
what was then the southwestern portion of Dakota, north- 
eastern part of Utah, and eastern part of Idaho. July 10, 
1890, the territory was admitted as a state by act of Congress, 
being the forty-fourth state in order of admission. 

Its geographical location classes it among the states of 
the inter-mountain or arid region, being bounded on the north 
by Montana, on the east by Dakota and Nebraska, on the south 
by Colorado and Utah, and on the west by Utah, Idaho and 
Montana. Its length from east to west is 355 miles ; width 
from north to south, 276 miles. Its area is 97,890 square 
miles, or 62,645,120 acres. 

The region now comprised within the limits of the state 
was traversed by Canadian explorers and other venturesome 
persons at an early date, but the first white settlement appears 
to have been established at Fort Laramie, in the eastern part 
of the state, in the year 1834. Subsequently trading posts 
were established in other localities, and still later the building 
of the Union Pacific railroad and the adaptation of the west- 
ern country to the cattle business led to further settlement. 

In general appearance the country is mountainous, with 
valleys, rolling plains and plateaus, the latter covered with 
grasses of great nutrition and furnishing admirable pasture for 



io The State of Wyoming. 

live stock, while the mean elevation is 6,000 feet above sea 
level, with extremes ranging from 3,000 to 14,000 feet. Prob- 
ably 10,000,000 acres of the total area of the state are covered 
with timber. 

Flowing east or west, according as their source is on the 
eastern or western slope of the main range of the Rocky 
Mountains, which cross the state from north to south, are 
numerous streams, among the number being the North Platte, 
Snake River, Green River, the Big Horn, the Shoshone, the 
Laramie and the Yellowstone. None of these streams are 
navigable in a commercial sense, but they furnish water for 
the irrigation and development of the surrounding country, 
and in some instances are used for the transportation of 
timber. 

The soil is a light, sandy loam ; dark and rich in the 
valleys. When reclaimed by the application of water, bounti- 
ful returns of agricultural products, with the exception of such 
as thrive only at low altitude and in warm, damp climates, are 
secured. It is estimated that 10,000,000 acres of the area of 
the state are suitable for agricultural purposes by irrigation. 

There are thirteen counties, four judicial districts, four 
irrigation divisions and many school districts. The capital 
is located at Cheyenne, in the southeastern corner of the state. 

The climate is similar to that of the mountain region of 
Italy, and is not, as sometimes erroneously supposed, extraor- 
dinarily severe in the winter. The average mean temperature 
for the year is about 44 degrees, varying somewhat according 
to elevation, and the atmosphere is rarefied and pure, with but 
few cloudy days. Winds sometimes prevail during the spring 
and fall, but cyclones and tornadoes are unknown, while the 
dryness of the atmosphere tends to ameliorate the effects of 
extreme cold. Snow storms are usually followed by chinook 
winds, which serve to uncover the pastures, so that live stock 
get the benefit of the grasses cured by the summer sun, and 
as the cured native grasses retain their nutrition, it enables 
the stockman to support his stock upon the open range with 
little, and in the case of sheep raising, no additional food. 
Western blizzards have been largely exaggerated, and some 
people consider the mountain climate synonymous with con- 
stant storms, dangerous to life. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth. But few climates are more bracing, healthful 
or pleasant than the climate of the mountain region of the 
western states. The almost constant sunlight is not only 
pleasant, but beneficial from a sanitary standpoint, and it is 
a well recognized fact in the medical profession that certain 
diseases, notably pulmonary affections, are much benefited 



The State. ii 

by change from the states of lower altitudes to Wyoming or 
adjacent states. (See article on Climate.) 

Gold, copper and coal mining, petroleum production and 
raising live stock are the most important business interests of 
the state. (See articles on these resources.) As will be no- 
ticed elsewhere in this publication, the supply of coal under- 
lying the state is apparently inexhaustible, and constant 
employment is furnished to a great many miners. 

The raising of live stock in its departments, however, 
probably now claims the attention of more people than any 
other industry, and the facilities for prosecuting that business 
are such as to commend it to the attention of prospective set- 
tlers. It is a noticeable feature of the present condition of the 
state that many of the former large herds of cattle have, in 
recent years, been reduced, without, however, materially re- 
ducing the total number of cattle in the state, while the num- 
ber of small herds owned by ranchmen and farmers has largely 
increased, and it is doubtful if any other state can show an 
agricultural population whose financial condition averages 
better than that of Wyoming's ranchmen. Many are here to 
testify to the benefits and profits derived by them from the 
use of the free pasture lands of the open range, with its nutri- 
tious native grasses, the opportunities of acquiring government 
land, cheap fuel and healthy climate, and the large area of the 
state in proportion to the present population is sufficient evi- 
dence that opportunities by which others have heretofore 
profited are still offered to the prospective settler. 

The state is destined in the very near future to become the 
richest, in its diversified natural resources, of any in the Union. 
The minerals listed in another part of this pamphlet are here in 
quantity. There are vast coal fields as yet unopened and sub- 
ject to entry under the United States statutes. There is an 
enormous area of oil land, most of which is still open for loca- 
tion. There are mountains of iron ore ; there is probably more 
copper than in any other state — veins from four to twenty-five 
feet wide, running from 15 per cent to 70 per cent — and many 
rich gold bearing lodes. 

Hot springs abound, which not only equal but surpass the 
famous Carlsbad Springs of Europe. The analysis of the 
waters and the results of their use have demonstrated this 
to be true. 

The only thing necessary to make the state all and more 
than is claimed for it in this pamphlet is more transportation 
facilities — railroads operated in the interest of local develop- 
ment and not solely for trans-continental traffic — more capital 
invested on a business basis, and more men of brains, push 
and honest purpose. To such fortune stands upon the Con- 



12 The State of Wyoming. 

tinental Divide, with winning smile and outstretched arms; to 
such Wyoming extends a hearty greeting and a co-operative 
hand. 



COUNTIES 


ft 


o 
. o 


1 
ft 


S-.C5 

. o 

r 


(3 

to a™ 
H 


gH 

o ii 
a> c 
"3T3 
. o 
o > 


tO Q,rl 


Albany 

Big Horn 


13,084 
4,328 
9,589 
3,337 
3,137 
5,357 
2,361 

20,181 
1,785 
5,122 
8,455 

12,223 
3,203 


2,558 

3!03S 
1,228 
1,271 
1,538 

937 
3,821 

812 
2,095 
1,948 
3,832 


5.115 
3.163 
3.167 
2.717 
2.590 
3.505 
2.519 
5.2S1 
2.198 
2.444 
4.340 
3.189 
3.470 


2,386 
1,789 
3,027 
1,289 
1,350 
1,536 
1,050 
3,643 
1,006 
2,145 
2,020 
4,031 
857 


12,214 
5,687 
9,586 
3,492 
3,496 
5,383 
2,644 

19,238 
2,211 
5,242 
8,767 

12,855 
2,973 


2,676 
2,860 
3,400 
1,570 
1,581 
1,700 
1,247 
4,644 
L120 
3,286 
2,184 
4,543 
1,086 


13,687 
9,046 
10,767 


Converse 


4,265 


Fremont 

Johnson 

Laramie 

Natrona 

Sheridan 

Sweetwater . ... 


5,958 
3,141 

24,525 
2,462 
8,031 
9,478 

14,48S 


Weston 


3,768 


*92,162 


25,459 




26,138 


93,788 


31,897 


113,710 







"Not including Yellowstone Park. 



Albany County 



Albany County was named by a representative from the 
then unnamed county to the Dakota Legislature, who, being 
a former resident of Albany, New York, named the new county 
Albany. It has an area of 3,248,640 acres; of this, 1,077,754 
acres are listed for taxation. Total valuation of county, 
$4,360,099.86; total tax levy, including state levy, 20 mills; 
bonded indebtedness, $112,000; .mean elevation, 6,500 feet. 

Agriculture. — Twenty-five years ago those who suggested 
that agricultural products might be raised with profit in 
Albany County were ridiculed. Today hundreds of citizens 
are not only making a living, but are reaping large profits. 
The soil of the Laramie plains is suitable and the season at an 
elevation of 7,000 feet is sufficiently long for all kinds of small 
grain, alfalfa (two crops), nearly all the vegetables, sugar 
beets, etc. A ready market is found for all kinds of farm pro- 
duce at prices far in advance of those prevailing in Kansas 
and Nebraska. 

Recent experiments on a somewhat extended scale have 
proved the value of the field pea, and quite an acreage is being 
planted during the current season (1905). This crop is used 



Albany County. 13 

in the fattening of lambs, for which purpose it takes the place 
of both corn and alfalfa and is much cheaper. 

Stock Raising is still the principal industry, more than 
$2,000,000 being invested in domestic animals. The days of 
the large outfits have passed, but the business has not declined 
in consequence and is far more profitable. Under existing 
conditions, the ranchmen of Albany County keep just the 
number of animals that can be well cared for in the winter 
time, making it a universal rule to provide sufficient hay to 
carry them through in good condition. A constant evolution 
from the large to the small ranch is in progress, and in the 
near future all the large holdings will doubtless be divided 
into small, well equipped farms and ranches. Land owners 
are rapidly learning that it is more profitable to bring their 
lands under cultivation than to hold them solely for range 
purposes. 

The City of Laramie is the county seat and principal town. 
Its population, census of 1900, is 8,207. Here is located the 
University of Wyoming; the public school system is of the 
very best. Among the manufacturing cities of the state, Lar- 
amie takes first place. Just to the south of the city, and within 
its limits, is located the factory of the Acme Cement Company. 
It owns about 1,000 acres of plaster land, which has a deposit 
of natural plaster from six to eight feet in thickness. It is put 
through a calcining process and becomes the finest of building 
material. It is used throughout the west, the output of the 
plant being from six to ten car loads per day. Another plaster 
mill, belonging to the Rocky Mountain Plaster Company, is 
located nine miles south, at Red Buttes station. Its product 
is made from gypsum, and it is what is known as a hard-rock 
mill. Very fine plaster of paris and four other grades of plaster 
are manufactured here. The two plaster concerns employ 
about fifty men. 

At Laramie the Union Pacific operates large shops and a 
tie-preserving plant. The ties are brought here from the moun- 
tains and undergo a pickling process which prolongs their life 
perhaps two and one-half times. In the shops and at the tie 
plant 150 men are employed. It is a freight division on the 
Union Pacific, and many railroad men have their homes estab- 
lished at this point. 

Lumber is manufactured in the adjacent mountains, and 
an excellent quality of brick is made in the city. A pressed 
brick plant is in operation. Building material and labor are 
more reasonable than in most western cities, hence buildings 
for homes and business purposes can be constructed at fair 
rates. 



14 The; State of Wyoming. 

A large quantity of limestone is shipped to the beet sugar 
plants and smelters of Colorado from quarries just to the east 
of Laramie. The Union Pacific has constructed a spur to these 
quarries. This limestone is the purest discovered in the United 
States and is practically inexhaustible. It was used some years 
ago in the manufacture of glass. All the other ingredients for 
the manufacture of glass of a superior quality are found at Lar- 
amie, and it is within the realm of reason to predict that this 
industry will soon be in a flourishing condition at this point. 
Enough has been done to demonstrate its feasibility. 

The State Fish Hatchery is located five miles southeast 
of Laramie. At this institution more than a million small fry 
are hatched annually and distributed among the streams of 
the state. With two exceptions, the streams of Albany County 
were naturally without trout, hence the State Hatchery has 
been of untold value to the local angler, as well as to those 
who enjoy the delicacy of trout upon their tables. No better 
trout fishing is enjoyed by the people of any section than is 
had by the people of Albany County. 

Fruit Growing. — Many of the residents of Albany County 
are successfully raising small fruit, such as raspberries, cur- 
rants, gooseberries, strawberries, etc., and some attempts have 
been made at raising apples and other large fruits. One ranch- 
man, Mr. Jacob Lund, has for several years raised a quantity 
of Wealthy apples at his ranch near Jelm, elevation 7,400 feet. 
There is no reason to believe that fruit in almost endless 
variety cannot be raised in portions of Albany County ; in fact, 
results already attained prove that it may be done. 

Mining. — See Mineral Resources, this pamphlet. 

In conclusion, it may be said that Albany County holds 
out to the man of small fortune much that is alluring. Here 
is an opportunity to make a comfortable home in a country 
that is prosperous and in a climate that is unsurpassed in all 
that pertains to the health of mankind. 

Albany County is in the Cheyenne United States land 
office district. 



Big Horn County 



Big Horn County was named from the Big Horn or 
Rocky Mountain sheep, which abound in the Big Horn Moun- 
tains, on the east side of the Big Horn Basin. The county was 
organized in 1896. Bonded indebtedness is $34,000; tax levy, 
183/2 mills; total assessed valuation, $3,005,256; average ele- 
vation of agricultural portion, 4,000 feet. 



Big Horn County. 15 

It was the last organized county of the state, and consists 
of that portion of the northwestern corner known as the Big 
Horn Basin. This is, in many respects, one of the most re- 
markable basins situated on either side of the great Conti- 
nental Divide. This is true, whether we consider its great 
area, the lofty mountains enclosing it on all sides except the 
north, its equable climate or the fertility of its soils. On the 
east looms up the Big Horn Range, some of its peaks rising 
12,000 feet above sea level; on the west tower the equally 
high peaks of the Shoshone Range, spurs of the great Con- 
tinental Divide ; on the south is the Owl Range, a spur of 
the Continental Divide connecting it with the southern end 
of the Big Horn Range. The usual elevation of the divides 
connecting these peaks is from 9,000 to 10,000 feet above 
the sea level. Among these mountains are found some of 
the finest examples of mountain and canon scenery to be 
found on this continent. 

Passing centrally through this basin in a northerly direc- 
tion, its meanderings covering more than one hundred miles, 
is the Big Horn River. Its entrance into the basin has been 
made in some past convulsion of nature, through the Owl 
Range, by an impassable canon of about four miles in length. 
Its exit from the basin to the north has been made by cutting 
through the northerly end of the Big Horn Range by a very 
remarkable canon of about twenty miles in length, its walls 
rising almost vertically 1,200 to 1,500 feet above the water. 
Intermediate between these canons this river passes through 
Sheep Mountain, a secondary and detached range, by a canon 
of about three miles length, but equally as interesting as the 
other two. The Big Horn Range, west of its lower canon, 
is designated Pryor Mountain, which gradually recedes in 
height until it drops to the level of the plain bordering 
Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone. Around the base of this 
mountain is -the natural outlet from the Big Horn Basin. 

Agriculture and Stock Raising. — It is within bounds to 
assert that every square mile of the area of this county, ex- 
cept a small percentage forming the slopes of the high moun- 
tain peaks, can be utilized in summer or winter for agriculture 
or the grazing of stock, as proven by the experience of ten 
years with cattle, horses and sheep. The high mountain 
plateaus, with their intervening valleys, up to an elevation of 
10,500 feet, in summer and until covered with snow in the fall, 
produce grass of sufficient fattening properties for summer 
feed. At elevations of from 7,500 to 10,500 feet all stock keep 
fat for four months of the year. 

Agriculture.— The greater part of the irrigable lands have 
an altitude varying from 3,400 feet to 4,400 feet. Oats yield 



16 ' The State of Wyoming. 

from forty to eighty bushels per acre, wheat thirty to sixty, 
rye twenty-five to fifty-five, barley forty to sixty, corn thirty 
to fifty, and is as sure a crop as in Iowa ; alfalfa three to seven 
tons, other grasses two to four tons per acre. 

In this county the state, under the Carey Arid Land Act, 
has segregated 400,000 acres of land, which will shortly be 
placed under irrigating ditches, and which will provide homes 
for thousands of people. (See article.) 

There is no better location in the west than this section 
for a beet sugar factory. 

Within the belt lying between 5,500 and 6,500 feet eleva- 
tion timothy and redtop do exceptionally well ; alfalfa pro- 
duces two cuttings. Below this belt, with ordinary good man- 
agement, alfalfa will yield three good cuttings. Its seed comes 
to full maturity and is of good quality. It is believed that in 
no locality of the world are small grains of superior quality or 
in larger yield per acre. All the roots, such as potatoes, car- 
rots, rutabagas and beets of all kinds, thrive excellently well 
up to 6,500 feet elevation. It is not uncommon for beets and 
rutabagas, where well cultivated, to attain weights of ten to 
fifteen pounds, and solid to the core. Of melons, the cantaleup 
matures of excellent quality ; so does the watermelon, though 
to less extent. The potato is a large yielder, and of quality 
unsurpassed anywhere. Such garden vegetables as radishes, 
lettuce, cauliflower, beans and peas do well at all altitudes. 
Radishes, lettuce and cauliflower come to perfection above 
5,500 feet altitude and are of unsurpassed quality and flavor. 

Horticulture. — All the small fruits, such as raspberries, 
currants, strawberries and gooseberries, grow wild, and tame 
varieties do well. Apple and peach trees of two years' growth 
promise success. 

Irrigation. — In addition to the large volume of water de- 
livered by the Big Horn River, running centrally through the 
county, its large and numerous tributaries furnish a super- 
abundance of water for irrigating large bodies of land that can 
be gotten under ditch. From the east flow Kirby, No Wood 
and Shell Creeks ; from the west comes Owl Creek and its 
much larger tributaries of Grey Bull and Wood River; then 
the two forks of the Shoshone River, and still farther to the 
north the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone. 

More extended reference to minerals, agriculture, stock 
raising, climate, hot springs, etc., will be found elsewhere in 
the articles upon Geology, Agriculture, Climate and Health, 
and Stock Raising. 

In this county are situated the cities of Cody, Meeteetse, 
Garland, Basin, Byron, Cowley, Lovell, Burlington, Germania, 
Otto and Bonanza. At Bonanza there has recently been dis- 



Carbon County. 17 

covered lubricating and illuminating oil, and it promises to 
develop into a very rich oil district. There are business op- 
portunities in all of these towns. 

From Cody tally-ho stages run to Mammoth Hot Springs,- 
in the Yellowstone National Park, a distance of fifty miles, 
through scenery which is not equaled in the Alps. (See article, 
this pamphlet, entitled "Yellowstone National Park.") 

Big Horn Hot Springs. — These springs were ceded to the 
state in 1897, together with ten miles square of land from the 
Shoshone Indian Reservation, and are located on the Big Horn 
River, just opposite Thermopolis, about fifty-four miles in a 
northerly direction from the center of the sta1;e. The main 
spring is on the east side of the river, about 500 feet back from 
the bank of the stream, and comes to the surface at the foot of 
Monument Hill, which rises about 250 feet above the spring. 
The surface of the spring is about forty-five feet above the 
river. The stream running from the spring to the river is 
about seven feet wide and two and seven-tenths feet deep, and 
carries about 18,600,000 gallons of water every twenty-four 
hours. The temperature of the spring is 135 F. The spring 
is situated on the east side of a slightly sloping plateau, which 
contains about ten acres of land, which is covered by a heavy 
coating of alkaline salts and sodium, which have been depos- 
ited by the hot mineral waters spreading over the surface. 
This coating is from ten to forty feet thick, and is naturally of 
a pure white color. There are many terraces on the edge of 
the formation, making a very picturesque appearance. There 
are many traces of volcanic action to be seen surrounding the 
springs and formation on the east, north and west sides. 
These springs equal, in every respect, the famous European 
springs of Carlsbad and Aix-la-Chapelle, or the Arkansas 
springs, and are equal in curative properties to the Saratoga 
Hot Springs. 

The United States land office for this county is at Lander, 
except for a few townships in the eastern part of the county, 
which are in the Buffalo land office district. 



Carbon County 



Carbon County was organized in 1870 and was named 
from the immense coal deposits which underlie the county. It 
has an area of 11,061 square miles, is noted for its vast herds 
of sheep, its fine cattle and, above all, its rich coal and mineral 
deposits. It is the richest county in mineral resources and 



18 The State of Wyoming. 

stands second to none in its stock raising. The total number 
of acres listed for taxation is 1,218,353, and the valuation of all 
real estate in the county, including town lots, is $2,409,217.50; 
bonded indebtedness,, $129,200; tax levy, 18 mills; the total 
value of assessable property in the county, $5,569,094.33. 

Rawlins is on the Union Pacific railroad, and is the county 
seat of Carbon County. Altitude, about 7,000 feet. It has a 
population of about 2,500 ; has roundhouses and extensive 
machine shops. It is a distributing point for an outlying coun- 
try, both north and south of the railroad. Daily and tri-weekly 
stages leave here for points north and south. The new State 
Penitentiary, costing $100,000, is located here, and also a sub- 
stantial stone court house and a fine public school building, 
which cost, respectively, $50,000 and $35,000. Here are located 
and operated fine building stone quarries, the Rawlins sand- 
stone being shipped out of the state both east and west. The 
beautiful new government building at Cheyenne was built of 
this stone, as was the State Capitol. Here also are located the 
great mineral red paint mines (known as Rawlins Red), from 
which the paint for the Brooklyn bridge was originally pro- 
cured. This ore is shipped to Denver and much used by the 
smelters as a flux. The city is also the supply point for and 
the headquarters of a vast sheep and wool industry. 

Saratoga, a beautiful town of 1,000 inhabitants, is situated 
twenty-three miles south of the Union Pacific railroad, in the 
heart of the great Platte Valley, and is the gateway to the 
renowned Grand Encampment mining district, and is noted 
for its medicinal hot springs. The temperature of the water is 
135 Fahrenheit. From their chemical analysis, we would say 
that these springs were alkaline-sulphur, in combination with 
salines and calcareous salts. They closely resemble in their 
different properties the famous European springs of Carlsbad, 
Marienbad, Ems, Teplitz and Aix-la-Chapelle. 

Their properties may be summed up as stimulating, ab- 
sorptive, alterative and reconstructive, and clinical results have 
proven all the claims made for them by their chemical analysis. 
It is difficult to state what diseases are most benefited by a 
course of baths at these thermal waters. Among the list of 
those maladies which have been relieved at the springs may 
be mentioned all as acute, sub-acute and chronic diseases of 
all mucus membranes, such as catarrh of the nasal passages, 
the mouth and pharynx, the throat, bronchial tubes, the stom- 
ach and the whole alimentary canal ; dyspepsia, due to hyper- 
acidity of the stomach and gastric ulcers; congestion of the 
liver, due to catarrh of the bile ducts and a sluggish portal 
circulation, and beginning cirrhosis, acute and chronic catarrh 
of the whole genito-urinary tract. The water acts not only by 



Carbon County. 19 

its chemical ingredients in these instances, but also mechan- 
ically as a sluice upon the system. It is well, therefore, for 
patients to drink it liberally. The water has undoubted bene- 
ficial influence upon gravel, lithiasis and the uric acid diathesis. 
Sanitary analyses have been made showing that this water is 
entirely free from every kind of contamination. 

These waters when bottled are unsurpassed by any in the 
United States for drinking purposes, for they are not only pure 
and as pleasant as the Manitou or Idaho waters, but have the 
advantage also of the medicinal qualities so beneficial to the 
stomach and kidneys. 

The North Platte River, in which are three wooded islands, 
runs through the city. It is an ideal place for a summer resort 
and sanitarium. The Sierra Madre Mountains on the west 
and south, and the Medicine Bow Range on the east, are each 
within two or three hours' drive, and present a beautiful view 
at all times. The trout fishing in the river and the mountain 
streams is unsurpassed. The summers are delightfully cool, 
there being no night when a blanket is not needed. With the 
completion of the Union Pacific's proposed connection, thou- 
sands who are in search of pleasure, health and business will 
yearly be attracted to this section. There is an old saying, "See 
Rome and die," but the legend of the west is, "See Saratoga 
and live." 

By reason of the destruction of the Hot Springs Hotel and 
bath house by fire, a new large, modern hotel and bath facil- 
ities are needed. This presents one of the best opportunities 
for investment in the west. 

Encampment is a town of recent origin, brought forth by 
the prospects of the new gold and copper mines opened in the 
Grand Encampment district, and has a population of about 
1,000. It has a smelter, concentrating works and tramway to 
the top of the Rockies for conducting the ore. It is situated on 
the Grand Encampment River, twenty miles south of Saratoga. 
(See article on Mineral Resources.) 

Schools. — The county has a good public school system. 
The number of schools is thirty-nine and the number of chil- 
dren of school age is 1,500. 

Live Stock. — One of the chief industries of the county is 
its live stock interests. Of sheep there were, for the year 1904, 
489,069, valued at $917,773; of cattle, 27,953, valued at $488,- 
546; of horses and mules, 6,277, valued at $163,114. 

Agriculture, — This industry has for many years been an 
important one, continually on the increase, and has assumed 
large proportions in the Upper Platte Valley country and on 
the tributaries of the North Platte River. Wheat, oats and 



20 The State of Wyoming. 

barley are raised in large quantities and command a ready price 
for home consumption. The wheat is a very fine, plump grain, 
making the very best of flour. The oats are of a superior 
quality, and run from forty-five to fifty pounds to the bushel. 
All of these crops yield abundantly. Hay is an important crop, 
and the yield per acre is always satisfactory. Timothy and 
redtop grow luxuriantly, but the native hay, of which there is 
a large quantity raised, is much in favor. Alfalfa or lucerne is 
a prime favorite, and there is a large acreage devoted to the 
production of that crop. It yields from three to four tons per 
acre, each year, of a very superior quality, much esteemed by 
the stockmen. for its fat-producing qualities. All kinds of veg- 
etables and small fruits grow abundantly, and the entire home 
market is supplied by home production. All farming is by 
irrigation. There are still many thousand acres of upland, on 
either side of the Platte River, that are open to settlement, and 
this stream furnishes water for an almost unlimited acreage. 
The feeding of cattle and sheep for spring market is largely 
engaged in by the inhabitants of this county, who annually 
ship large numbers of sheep and fat beeves to eastern markets, 
commanding the highest market prices. 

Mining. — See article on Mining Resources. 

Climate. — The climate of Carbon County is beautiful, brac- 
ing and invigorating, mild and pleasant during the summer 
months and not severely cold or uncomfortable in the winter. 
It is peculiarly suited to the building up of weak lungs, and is 
conducive to health and longevity. 

Water and Timber. — Carbon County is well watered by 
mountain streams, the North Platte River flowing the entire 
length of the county from south to north. Nearly every por- 
tion is abundantly supplied with water for irrigation purposes. 
The numerous mountain ranges in the county are covered with 
an excellent quality of pine timber suitable for building pur- 
poses and for the manufacture of lumber, as well as for fuel. 

Game and Fish. — Carbon County streams, while originally - 
barren of trout, have been well stocked with every variety of 
that kind of fish, and are today the finest trout streams to be 
found anywhere. Trout weighing from ten to twelve pounds 
are frequently taken from the North Platte River, and every 
stream swarms with the finny tribe. Game of all kinds, in- 
cluding bear, elk and deer, are to be found in the mountain 
ranges and timber; sage hens and grouse inhabit the plains 
and mountains, and the streams and lakes are well supplied 
with ducks and geese. 

This county is in the Cheyenne United States land office 
district. 



Converse County. 



Converse County 



This county was organized in 1888 and named after A. R. 
Converse, a pioneer cattleman, who had large interests in that 
section. It has a population of 3,337 and an area of 7,000 
square miles. The North Platte River, with its many tribu- 
taries, flows through the central portion of the county, afford- 
ing a bountiful water supply for thousands of acres of land 
which have been brought under cultivation, and its wide plains 
are among the best pasture lands of the state. The Chicago 
and Northwestern branch railroad traverses its entire length 
from east to west, and the Colorado and Southern railroad 
gives an outlet to the south. The total assessed valuation of 
the county in 1904 was given as $2,540,232.45 ; the county 
bonded indebtedness, $36,900; rate of taxation, 18^ mills. 

Until a very late date, the tract of country known as Con- 
verse County was given up to stock growing. Today there 
are thousands of acres of land under cultivation. Most of the 
cultivated acreage can be classed as bottom or low land, bor- 
dering upon streams, although in the southeastern portion 
lands are producing good crops of corn, wheat and oats with- 
out irrigation. The principal crop in small grain is oats. With 
irrigation, oats have reached the enormous yield of eighty 
bushels to the acre, with a stool of six feet. Wheat will yield 
fifteen bushels on sod and twenty bushels on old ground. Rye 
and barley produce twenty bushels to the acre.. Tame 
grasses — timothy, clover and millet — reach a luxuriant growth. 
Alfalfa does well without irrigation, but when placed under 
ditch, affords two and three full crops per year. Corn makes 
a good crop in the eastern end of the county. Vegetables, 
under irrigation and in the bottom lands adjacent to streams, 
attain a growth equal to California's famous products. Pota- 
toes yield several hundred bushels to the acre. Pumpkins and 
squashes reach a weight of 100 and even 160 pounds ; cabbage, 
twenty-three pounds ; turnips, twelve to fifteen pounds, and 
other vegetables in like proportion. 

Converse County's chief mineral resources are coal, iron 
and copper. The finest coal found west of the Mississippi 
River is in the Shawnee Basin, fifty miles west of the Ne- 
braska state line. Near Douglas is found a superior article 
of lignite, unsurpassed as a stove coal and a good steam fuel, 
but the vein is only two and one-half feet thick. At Inez, 



22 The State of Wyoming. 

sixteen miles west of Douglas, the vein is seven feet thick, 
with a sandstone roof. At Glenrock, twenty miles further 
west, the vein is about six feet thick, with a sandstone roof. 
A new mine has just been opened at Big Muddy, near Glen- 
rock. Coal "crops out" in greater or less veins in a hundred 
localities throughout the western portion of the county, and 
particularly in the northwestern portion. Assays of $68 in 
silver and gold, $240 in "horn"' silver, and forty to fifty per 
cent in copper have been obtained from prospect holes all 
along the Laramie Range in this county, and particularly from 
Spring Canon, some fifteen miles south of Douglas. Lime- 
stone is found in abundance, and quarries of a superior quality 
of sandstone have been located. Marble equal in grain and 
variety and beautiful color to the best has been discovered in 
several localities, while gypsum, from which is made the 
plaster of paris of commerce, exists in inexhaustible quanties. 
Large deposits of mica, glass sand and potters' clay have also 
been located. 

Plenty of timber grows in the mountains and foothills, 
principally pine and spruce, and native lumber is supplied at 
reasonable prices. There is plenty of good land in the county 
subject to location, but it is being rapidly taken up. Lubri- 
cating oil is found in different portions of the county. Capital 
is at present engaged in developing this industry. 

Douglas, the county seat, is located on the North Platte 
River and on the line of the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri 
Valley railroad, and has a population of about 1,000. The 
town is quite prosperous, being, the center of a large and 
growing trade. The high prices received for cattle, sheep, 
wool and all farm products add greatly to its present pros- 
perity. Its numerous business places, substantial dwellings, 
well graded streets, sidewalks, waterworks and other im- 
provements attest the prosperity of the place. Its bonded 
indebtedness is $17,000. 

There are large oil fields within a short distance of Doug- 
las, and gas was recently struck in commercial quantities 
within eight miles of the town. (See article, this pamphlet, 
on Oil.) 

There are gold and copper mines south of Douglas. 

Other towns of importance are Glenrock, Lusk and Man- 
ville, the former a coal mining town of about 600 population, 
and the two latter towns to which agricultural and stock 
raising districts are tributary. 

The United States land office for this county is at Douglas. 



Crook County. 23 



Crook County 



Crook County was organized in 1875, and was named 
after General George Crook, the noted Indian fighter. 

This county is situated on the northeastern corner of the 
state. It is 102 miles long by sixty wide, and has an area of 
6,120 square miles. Lands assessed, 228,953.45 acres; total 
assessed value of all property, $2,336,929.28; tax levy, 20 
mills; bonded indebtedness, $51,500; number of schools, 45; 
number of school children, 1,132; population, 4,094. The 
county is traversed by the Burlington railroad. 

County Seat. — The county seat and principal town is Sun- 
dance, with a population of about 500, situated at the foot of 
Sundance Mountain, on the banks of Sundance Creek, a beau- 
tiful mountain stream, and in the center of a fertile district. 
The city owns its system of waterworks, substantial city hall, 
fire apparatus, etc. Merchandising in all its branches, banking 
and commercial interests are well represented. The municipal 
bonded indebtedness is $14,725, at six per cent interest. 

Altitude and Climate. — The altitude of Crook County av- 
erages about 4,000 feet above sea level ; the air is dry, bracing 
and healthful, with a mean annual temperature of 41. 1 degrees. 
The yearly precipitation averages twenty-four inches. Agri- 
cultural products are grown throughout the county without 
irrigation. 

Agriculture. — Agricultural pursuits claim the attention of 
many of the citizens of the county, and wheat, oats, rye, corn 
and every variety of garden vegetables are raised with profit, 
in many instances both the yield and the quality of the product 
being worthy of particular mention. Wild fruits of the smaller 
varieties are especially abundant, and considerable progress 
has already been made in the cultivation of the tame varieties. 
The soil throughout the county is a dark, rich loam of great 
fertility, and the fact that crops can be raised without irriga- 
tion facilitates agricultural pursuits. Wheat yields twenty 
bushels, oats thirty bushels, rye thirty bushels, corn twenty- 
five bushels, potatoes 100 bushels per acre ; alfalfa, two cut- 
tings, three tons per acre each cutting; millet four tons, tim- 
othy two tons. Apples do well, as do all kinds of small fruits. 

This is the only county in the state where agricultural 
crops are generally raised without irrigation, and this is very 



24 The State of Wyoming. 

fortunately so, as there are but few streams of sufficient size 
and fall to furnish sufficient water for irrigation purposes. 

This county is very much in need of railroad connections. 
A branch line from the Burlington would add greatly to the 
development of the county. 

Live Stock. — In connection with agricultural pursuits, all 
kinds of live stock are raised extensively. The present return 
for assessment shows 38,382 neat cattle, 8,146 horses and 68,308 
sheep, with a total live stock valuation of $1,111,764.50. 

Mining. — Gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and manganese 
have been found in considerable quantities, and extensive fields 
of a good quality of semi-bituminous coal are being developed. 
Much of the future wealth of Crook County will undoubtedly 
come from the development of the coal fields of that locality. 
Quite extensive gold placer mining operations have been con- 
ducted on Sand Creek and vicinity, with profit to the operators. 
Granite, porphyry, limestone and other building stones and fine 
marbles are found in great variety in abundance. A railroad 
has been built from Belle Fourche, South Dakota, to the 
Aladdin coal mines, near Barrett, Wyoming, a distance of 
eighteen miles. There are also extensive oil fields. 

Streams and Topography. — The county is traversed by 
the Belle Fourche, the Little Missouri and the Little Powder 
Rivers. The water of the streams generally is pure and suit- 
able to domestic uses. Along these streams are fertile valleys 
of fine farming lands, and between the streams are found 
extensive plateaus, suitable for grazing. Low ranges of moun- 
tains, well timbered, traverse the county, adding to the at- 
tractiveness of the landscape. 

Timber. — The timber found on these mountain ranges is 
a heavy growth of spruce and pine. Oak, ash and cottonwood 
trees also abound. 

Fishing. — A branch of the State Fish Hatchery is located 
in Crook County, not far from Sundance, and many of the 
streams of the county furnish excellent sport to those who 
enjoy the pursuit of game fish. 

Natural Curiosities. — A remarkable formation known as 
the Devil's Tower, a solid basaltic column rising abruptly to a 
height of 1,300 feet, and making a landmark that can be seen 
for miles in every direction, is a notable feature of the topog- 
raphy of this county. 

This county is in the Sundance United States land office 
district. 



Fremont County. 25 



Fremont County 



Fremont is the west central county of the state, and has 
an average width, north and south, of 100 miles, and a length, 
east and west, of 125 miles. It was organized in 1884 and was 
named after General John C. Fremont, the noted pathfinder 
and first presidential candidate of the Republican party. 

The rate of taxation for 1904 was 22 mills ; the number 
of acres of land in the same year was 68,444, while the valua- 
tion of all assessable property in the county was $2,089,585. 
The bonded debt of the county is $32,200. 

There are no railroads in the county, but two are prom- 
ised prior to the opening of the Wind River Reservation, June 
15, 1906. It is reached by daily stage from Casper, on the 
Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley railroad, and Rawlins, 
on the Union Pacific railroad. The mean annual temperature 
is 42 . The approximate elevation, outside of the mountain 
ranges, is 5,000 feet. It is destined to become a great agricul- 
tural district, though at present farming is engaged in only 
for the purpose of supplying a local demand. Nearly a 
million acres are susceptible of irrigation, including the land 
which will be left in the Shoshone Indian Reservation after 
lands have been allotted to all of the Indians. This land, when 
irrigated, produces most excellent crops of wheat, oats, alfalfa 
and other kinds of hay, every variety of vegetables and small 
fruit, and, in the more sheltered parts, fine orchards of the 
Wealthy and other varieties of early apples are yielding a crop 
which is superior in flavor to any apple seen in the irrigated 
counties. The average crops per acre are : Wheat, thirty to 
forty bushels ; oats, forty to sixty bushels ; potatoes, 200 
bushels; alfalfa, two to three tons each cutting, and other 
grasses, about three tons of hay. The yield of other vegetables 
is in proportion to that reported for potatoes. 

The county is famous for its rich agricultural lands and 
its abundance of water for irrigation. It is also noted for its 
fine apple orchards and abundance of small fruits. The wool 
clip of the county for 1903 was 1,200,000 pounds. There are 
many small cattle ranches in the county, which have been 
operated successfully for many years. Wheat is grown in the 
Lander Valley, and it has been a profitable crop annually for 
the last fifteen years. There are three improved flouring 
mills in the county, one located at Lander, another in Milford, 
the third at the Shoshone Agency. All these mills turn out 



26 The State of Wyoming. 

high patent process flour, and the product is equal to the best 
anywhere. Oats and all kinds of garden vegetables grow to 
perfection. Alfalfa and timothy yield abundantly, and native 
hay grasses abound everywhere. 

There is an abundance of timber for building purposes and 
saw mills to cut up the lumber. A fine quality of coal is 
found in inexhaustible quantities all along the valley, which 
provides a cheap fuel for domestic and steam purposes. There 
are a number of oil springs in the county, and ten miles south 
of Lander are thirteen flowing wells, with a capacity of 200 
barrels per day each. These wells are plugged at present, 
awaiting the advent of a railroad. (See article on Oil.) White 
and red sandstone, for building purposes, is found in every 
part of the county. Eight miles west of Lander there is a 
deposit of gray marble, and near it an abundant supply of 
granite. Both of these are susceptible of a high polish. 

The streams of Fremont County are numerous and of a 
lasting character. The Big Horn, Wind River, Little Wind 
and the numerous branches of the Popo Agie are the fountain 
heads of the Missouri River. They take their rise in the Wind 
River Range, whose mountains are among the loftiest of the 
Continental Divide. 

Fish abound in all the streams of this section, and trout 
fishing is the pastime of many. There is an abundance of elk, 
deer and antelope, and a number of varieties of bear in the 
Wind River Range and Owl Creek Mountains, which extend 
nearly the whole length of the county. 

Southern Fremont County has numerous gold deposits, 
both in placer and quartz. (See "Mineral Resources," this 
pamphlet.) 

Lander, the county seat, is centrally located, and is sur- 
rounded by hundreds of improved farms. The court house is 
a fine, large brick structure. The public school building is of 
brick and contains nine large rooms. The school is graded, 
and the graduates of the high school are admitted to the State 
University. Three religious societies have church edifices, 
namely, Methodist, Episcopal and Catholic. The population 
is 737. 

The town of Thermopolis is situated on the west side of 
the Big Horn Hot Springs Reservation, and contains about 
300 inhabitants. This town was started in September, 1897, 
and is growing rapidly. The Big Horn Hot Springs are just 
across the river, in Big Horn County, and are a source of 
considerable revenue to the town. (See "Hot Springs," Big 
Horn County.) 

For information relative to the opening of the Wind 
River Reservation, June 15, 1906, see article thereon in the 
chapter pertaining to land and irrigation matters. 



Johnson County. 27 

The United States land office for this county is at Lander, 
except for a few townships in the southeastern portion of the 
county, which are in the Cheyenne land office district. 



Johnson County 



Johnson County was organized in 1879, and was named 
after E. P. Johnson, a prominent attorney of Cheyenne. It has 
an area of 4,046 square miles. The total assessed valuation of 
the county in 1904 was $2,092,425.98; county bonded indebt- 
edness, $50,800 ; tax levy, 20^4 mills ; the population of the 
county, 2,361. With its rolling plains, extensive forests and 
fertile valleys, it is justly regarded as one of the best sections 
of the state. The Big Horn Mountains have an elevation of 
14,000 feet, while many of the valleys are less than 4,000 feet 
above the sea level. 

The resources of the county are varied. Stock raising is 
the chief industry. The vast open range and abundant streams 
of pure water make it a paradise for cattle. There are thou- 
sands of acres of grazing lands, and sufficient land can be irri- 
gated to produce enough hay, grain and alfalfa to make winter 
feed for all the live stock that the range will support in sum- 
mer. The county is one of the best watered counties in Wyo- 
ming, being well supplied with small streams heading in the 
Big Horn Mountains, and flowing generally to the northeast 
and northwest. 

The northern part of the county is a good farming coun- 
try and easily accessible by means of the Burlington railway. 
All kinds of vegetables are successfully raised ; cabbage, tur- 
nips, rutabagas, lettuce, parsnips, cauliflower, beets, carrots, 
celery, broomcorn and sorghum cane are all grown with suc- 
cess, while melons and small fruits of unequaled flavor and 
excellence are cultivated. Yield of oats per acre is forty-five 
bushels and upwards ; potatoes average 400 bushels ; alfalfa 
produces two crops per year, of from four to seven tons per 
acre ; and other crops in proportion. 

There are 30,000 acres under irrigation, and 200,000 acres 
are susceptible of irrigation and only await the advent of the 
industrious settler, who can here obtain a good home cheap, 
and there are 2,000,000 acres of available grazing land. Pas- 
ture lands sell for $2, irrigated from $15 to $25. Prices of 
products obtained by ranchmen are as follows: Alfalfa, $3.50; 
timothy, $6 ; bluestem, native, $8 per ton ; oats, $1.25 per cwt. ; 



28 The State of Wyoming. 

wheat and potatoes, $i per cwt. There is a large supply of 
pine timber taken from the mountains, which is well suited for 
building purposes. Along' the streams, are thrifty groves of 
cottonwood, and experiments have shown that timber of 
various kinds can be as successfully grown here as in the 
prairie states of Kansas and Nebraska. 

Minerals are yet undeveloped, but valuable prospects in 
gold, silver and copper are found in the Big Horn Mountains. 
Oil is found in large quantities, but because of a lack of trans- 
portation facilities is not worked. 

This county is, without doubt, one of the best range coun- 
ties in the state. It has one of the finest winter ranges in the 
west, where stock can roam at will, secure from winter storms 
in the shelter afforded by the high hills and deep gulches, while 
on account of the protection given by the location of the Big 
Horn Mountains and its spurs, lying to the west and north, 
blizzards are unknown, and the fall of snow is the least, es- 
pecially on the head of Powder River and its tributaries, of any 
place in the same latitude in the United States, with the prob- 
able exception of a small strip on the Pacific coast. The hills 
are covered with a thick sod of buffalo and other native 
grasses, and the cattle on the range in the central and southern 
parts of the county keep in as good condition as many of those 
in pastures where they have been fed nearly all the winter. 

Buffalo, the county seat, has always been a prosperous 
town, and at the present time has a population of 1,000. It is 
the business center of a fine grazing and agricultural district 
and has superior natural advantages. 

Clear Creek could furnish water power for a hundred fac- 
tories, besides irrigating several thousand acres of land. At the 
present time Buffalo is thirty-two miles from the Burlington 
railroad, but at no distant day expects to have a railroad con- 
nection. Its citizens have been very enterprising in building 
up the town, having erected a $40,000 court house, a $15,000 
school house and numerous brick buildings. The city also 
maintains an electric light plant, flouring mill, waterworks and 
two newspapers. Two stage lines are operated, one leaving 
daily for Sheridan and the other for Clearmont, the nearest 
railroad point. The town of Buffalo needs an electric railway 
connection with the Burlington Route, a distance of forty miles 
down Clear Creek, where water power can be obtained 
therefor. 

The Government, under the National Irrigation Act, con- 
templates using the waters from Lake De Smet for the irriga- 
tion of a vast tract of land, which, if done, will open same to 
settlement, with water on the land. 



Laramie County. 29 

Here is located the State Soldiers' Home, upon 1,270 acres 
of fertile land. The buildings cost over $100,000. 

The United States land office for this countv is at Buffalo. 



Laramie County 



Laramie County was organized in 1879, an d was named 
after Jacques Laramie, a French fur trader, who was killed 
near the mouth of the Laramie River about 1820. The Lar- 
amie River, Laramie Peak, Fort Laramie and Laramie County 
were named after this pioneer. 

The county indebtedness is $400,000, and the rate of tax- 
ation is 20^4 mills. The total number of acres of land listed 
for taxation is 1,083,266.19, and the value of all real estate in 
the county, including town lots, is $3,113,731.50; total value of 
all assessable property in the county is $6,782,438.32. 

This county is located in the southeastern portion of Wyo- 
ming, and comprises an area of 7,000 square miles. It ranks 
first in population and wealth, and was one of the original four 
counties of the Territory of Wyoming. The rolling plains 
along the eastern slope of the Black Hills Range, varying in 
altitude from 4,000 to 8,000 feet, are its natural features. These 
plains are peculiarly adapted to grazing. In all parts of the 
county are found numerous streams. The total acreage of the 
county is 4,520,000, of which 3,000,000 acres are fine grazing 
land and 1,000,000 are susceptible of being made rich agri- 
cultural lands. 

It is full of undeveloped resources ; has iron, coal, copper, 
gold and silver, sandstone, marble, granite, mineral paint and 
mica. The land is generally free from stones and other ob- 
structions, and is easily broken and cultivated, and is very 
fertile. 

Laramie County has passed from a purely pastoral condi- 
tion to one of mixed husbandry. Stock raising, farming, dairy- 
ing and gardening are practiced in varying degrees. The 
average temperature is about 6o° F. ; the rainfall fourteen 
inches. All field crops common to the west succeed well. 

The development through irrigation has not been confined 
to any particular locality. The soil is exceedingly fertile, the 
water reliable and the altitude sufficiently low to warrant the 
planting of any of the ordinary field crops. The creeks are 
lined, therefore, with the farms of ranchmen, who, combining 
farming and stock raising, are prosperous. 



30 The State of Wyoming. 

County Seat. — The City of Cheyenne is the county seat of 
Laramie County and the state capital, and has a population of 
14,000. Owing to the rapid advancement of Cheyenne after the 
settlement in 1867, it gained the title of "The Magic City," and 
has always been noted for the wealth and enterprise of its citi- 
zens. The city was designated as the capital when Wyoming 
Territory was organized in 1869. It is 516 miles west of Omaha, 
on the line of the Union Pacific. It is also the junction point 
of the Colorado and Southern and the terminus of the Bur- 
lington Route. 

Cheyenne has an extensive system of waterworks, the 
latest and most approved sewerage system, fire department 
and fire alarm system, telephone exchange, arc and incandes- 
cent electric lighted streets, besides gas for general use ; has a 
new opera house building in process of construction, to cost 
$80,000; a $30,000 club house, fine business blocks, elegant 
private residences, two banks, eleven churches, two daily news- 
papers and state capitol costing $300,000. Among the other 
institutions are the federal building and postoffice, costing 
$350,000; Elks' home, costing $30,000; Masonic temple, $50,- 
000 ; five public school buildings, built at an average cost of 
$30,000; convent school, erected at a cost of over $50,000; a 
county hospital, a county court house and jail, and extensive 
railroad shops, employing 700 men. Andrew Carnegie gave 
$50,000 for the construction of a public library, which has been 
built. The city is the supply point for an immense stock rais- 
ing and agricultural country, and its citizens are among the 
largest live stock owners in the state. 

Fort Russell, three miles from the city, is the largest and 
most important military post in the Department of the Mis- 
souri. 

There are several manufacturing establishments in the 
city, and the volume of business transacted annually amounts 
to many thousands of dollars. A creamery established several 
years has a big business and draws trade from a large section 
of country. 

Strangers view with delight the miles of smooth stone 
flagging and cement sidewalks that line almost every street in 
Cheyenne. The beauty of many of the streets and avenues is 
greatly enhanced by the bright green turf on either side of the 
walks, which, together with long lines of trees, forms an 
agreeable feature of the city's landscape. Nowhere can be 
found more delightful drives. Nature has provided roads 
equal to the smooth gravel roads of Central Park, New York. 
The people of Cheyenne have made it one of the most at- 
tractive places in which to live in America. 



Laramie County. 



31 



One of the greatest attractions of the city is its pure and 
healthful climate. Its air is an invigorating tonic, cool in the 
stimmer, mild in winter. No better summer climate can be 
found in our land. 

The Wheatland Colony. — No more important enterprise 
has been undertaken and carried out to successful results in 
the reclamation of arid lands than that of the Wheatland 
Colony by the Wyoming Development Company of Chey- 
enne. Each year since the initiation of the enterprise the 
company has done much for the betterment of the system. 
Its great irrigation plant now means the successful and ulti- 
mate reclamation of fully one hundred thousand acres. The 
lands reclaimed and being reclaimed are in the northern half 
of Laramie County, by railroad ninety miles from Cheyenne, 
on either side of the Colorado and Southern railroad. 

In the selection of a locality for an irrigation plant, many 
things should be considered, among which are, a market for 
the agricultural products, the soil, water supply and acces- 
sibility to timber. The Wheatland Colony has all these ad- 
vantages. The altitude, 4,500 to 4,800 feet, is the happy 
medium for the cultivation of lands with the aid of irrigation. 

The water is taken from the Laramie River, the Sybille 
and Blue Grass Creeks, through three canals. Number one 
is thirty-four miles long, has a width of twenty feet on the 
bottom and a depth of four feet. Canal number two is twenty- 
two miles long, has a depth of three and one-half feet and a 
width on the bottom of twenty-two feet. Canal number three 
is twelve miles long, has a width of fifteen feet on the bottom 
and a depth of three feet. The water is turned from the Lar- 
amie River to the head of Blue Grass Creek by means of a 
tunnel. The Blue Grass carries the water to Sybille Creek, 
and from that stream the water is conducted by the above 
mentioned canals across the lands to be irrigated by laterals, 
distributed wherever necessary. To reinforce the water sup- 
ply in case of drouth in any season, water has been turned 
into natural reservoirs. Number one has a shore line of 
eight miles. No more extensive reservoir has yet been found 
in the United States than number two ; it is seven miles long, 
averaging two and one-half miles in width. Its greatest depth 
is thirty-five feet, and its average depth is eighteen feet. It 
covers 6,600 acres, and has a shore line of thirty-five miles. 
It carries 118,800 acre feet of storage. 

A timber supply of sufficient abundance for all domestic 
purposes is near at hand. 

The soil is a black loam, well adapted for all small grains 
grown in the temperate zone, alfalfa, clover, potatoes, sugar 



32 The State of Wyoming. 

beets, vegetables and some varieties of Indian corn. The ex- 
periments with growing apples, cherries, plums and all small 
fruits have been satisfactory. That the soil is well adapted 
for the production of wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, tur- 
nips, flax, beets, cabbage and certain varieties of corn, has 
been shown by repeated tests and experiments. Timothy 
does exceedingly well, and crops of alfalfa produced mark 
the country as one of the best for growing this profitable for- 
age plant. Experiments in growing sugar beets have been so 
successful that doubtless before long a sugar beet factory will 
be established in the colony. Experts of two of the sugar 
beet companies of the United States have made very favorable 
reports to their companies on the Wheatland Colony as a 
place for the establishment of a sugar beet plant. 

The school system is of the very best. There are nine 
good schools in the colony. The colony is supplied with rural 
mail delivery and collection. 

The City of Cheyenne, the towns of Guernsey, Hartville, 
Wyncote, Torrington and Sunrise, and the mining and stock 
raising sections afford good markets for everything raised in 
the colony. 

Sheep and cattle feeding are no longer experimental in 
the colony. It has become a very profitable business. Alfalfa 
is the foundation of successful sheep and lamb feeding. The 
hog business is proving very profitable around Wheatland. 
Hog cholera is unknown in Wyoming. The climatic condi- 
tions are very favorable for stock growing and feeding. 

The thrifty town of Wheatland is in the center of the 
colony. It is on the Colorado and Southern railroad, which 
connects at Cheyenne with the Union Pacific and Burlington 
systems, at Orin Junction with the Fremont, Elkhorn and 
Missouri Valley railroad (a part of the Northwestern system), 
and at Hartville Junction with the Burlington. 

The town has a population of six hundred, made up of a 
fine class of people, intelligent, hospitable and public spirited. 
It has fine school buildings, three churches — Methodist, Con- 
gregational and Roman Catholic — a library and a good library 
building. The town is supplied with a telephone exchange, 
and has long distance connections with all the large towns of 
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. There are five general 
stores, a drug store, two livery stables, two hotels, one bank, 
a harness and saddle manufacturing establishment, two black- 
smith and carriage shops, two newspapers, five secret orders, 
a good hall and a modern roller mill with a capacity of 125 
barrels a day. 

Coal is cheap. Wood is abundant and may be had for 
simply the cutting and hauling. Good native lumber is worth 



Laramie County. 33 

$15 per thousand, or from $7 to $10 at the mills. Building 
stone is plenty and bricks are made in proximity to the town. 

Wheatland has a good outlook, and is one of the many 
sections of the state that promise good and speedy returns 
for capital invested. The agriculturalist who is looking for an 
ideal farming country ; cattle and sheep producers who are 
desirous for the most advantageous conditions for stock rais- 
ing ; the business man who is seeking the new town full of 
promise, with a growing surrounding country, and those bro- 
ken in health who seek a favorable climate, will find good 
openings at Wheatland. The lands are selling rapidly for 
from S22. 50 to S35 per acre. Ten years' time is given, with 
equal annual payments, at six per cent interest. No payment 
except the interest has to be made the second year, which 
gives the settler an opportunity to pay for his farm even 
though his means be limited. A perpetual water right goes 
with each piece of land, and a purchaser of a Wheatland farm 
cannot be deprived of an equal water right with every land- 
holder any more than he can be deprived of the land itself. 
The land and water go together. When the lands and water 
have all been sold; the irrigation works will be absolutely un- 
der the control of those holding lands in the colony. 

During the winter just passed 25,000 head of sheep were 
fed at Wheatland, all of which, with the exception of about 
1,000 head, were lambs. They were fed by William xAyers, 
M. R. Johnston. William Trenholm, D. M. Southworth, 
William M. Clark, Albert McElheny, Duncan Grant, Shep- 
hard Bros., William Xelson and A. M. Axford. With the 
exception .of Mr. Avers and Mr. Johnston, each of whom fed 
5,000 head, they were fed in small bunches, but all were fed 
by men on their own lands ; all of whom produced a part of 
the hay required for the feeding. There were 5,000 tons of 
hay fed and fifty car loads, or 2,500,000 pounds, of corn fed. 

The feeding was very profitable, as the net profits were 
from $1 to $2.50 per head. *The ruling price for the alfalfa 
hay in the stack is from $3.50 to $4.50 per ton. There was 
left over a surplus of hay that would have fed as many more 
sheep. Owing to the increased acreage of alfalfa to be har- 
vested this season, the Wheatland Colony will be in position 
to feed and fatten 75,000 lambs during the coming winter. 

The sheep feeding conditions are most favorable at 
Wheatland. 

Guernsey. — The new town of Guernsey, which is the nat- 
ural railroad and business center of the iron region known 
as the Hartville Iron Range, and described elsewhere in this 
book under Mineral Resources, is located at the base of the 



34 The State of Wyoming. 

Iron Range in the Valley of the Platte River. It is beautifully 
situated below the mouth of the Grand Canon in a broad 
sweep of intervals in a bend of the river. With the develop- 
ment of the mining and stock industries and railroad build- 
ing, with which its interests are identified, and from which it 
sprang into existence, its future growth is assured. 

Its location marks it as one of the coming industrial cities 
of Wyoming. It already has two railroads, and with the 
western extensions of the Burlington, will become a division 
headquarters on its continental system, and will have connec- 
tion with the mining camps, not only of the Hartville Range, 
but those of Halleck Canon, Plumbago Canon, Squaw Moun- 
tain. Horse Shoe Park, North Laramie and the Peak Range. 
North of Guernsey are the mining camps of Whalen Canon, 
Wildcat, Muskrat and Rawhide Buttes, which will be reached 
by a spur on the eastern slope of the mountains. 

The establishment of industrial enterprises at Guernsey 
is to be promoted by the building of a big dam at the mouth 
of the canon, where the immense volume of Platte River 
water will be utilized for electric light, power and water sys- 
tems second to none in the west. The electric power gen- 
erated here will not only furnish light, but will in time 
operate all the mines of the range, while the water supply will 
irrigate thousands of acres of land along the valley, as well 
as provide an admirable water system for the City of Guern- 
sey, with its mills, smelters and workshops, at a small expense. 

Sunrise is the headquarters of the Colorado Fuel and Iron 
Company's mines. Development work on some of the mining 
claims at Sunrise and Hartville show indications of good gold 
values, and a gold mining district may be developed. 

Dry Farming in Laramie County. — Laramie County has 
not only the greatest irrigation enterprise in Wyoming, but it 
has millions of acres susceptible of profitable cultivation by 
a scientific system of dry farming. Hon. W. C. Deming, of the 
committee having the important work in charge, makes the 
following statement : 

"Cheyenne is the center of the dry farming movement in 
"Wyoming. There are two distinct and active movements now 
in progress along this line. 

"The Agricultural Department of the United States has 
contributed $2,000; the Union Pacific railroad, $1,000; the Bur- 
lington railway, $1,000; the State Agricultural College at Lar- 
amie, $500; the Colorado and Southern railroad, $350; the 
Cheyenne Board of Trade, $150; making a total of $5,000 for 
experiments to be carried on over a series of years. The farm, 
embracing about 100 acres of land, is located near Cheyenne, 



Natrona County. 35 

and the experiments will range from absolute dry farming to 
winter irrigation and summer irrigation by windmills. The 
experiments are in charge of Prof. Elwood Mead of the United 
States irrigation office. State Engineer C. T. Johnston, Prof. 

B. C. Buftum of the State Agricultural College. John H. Gor- 
don is superintendent. 

"The other movement is on a larger scale, so far as im- 
mediate work is concerned. 

''Laramie County, the City of Cheyenne and the Chey- 
enne Board of Trade have raised an experimental fund and 
placed the work in the hands of the following committee : W. 

C. Deming, Chairman ; H. B. Henderson, Secretary-Treas- 
urer ; C. B. Richardson, Chairman Executive Committee, and 
Dr. V. T. Cooke, Director. 

"Dr. Cooke is a practical farmer from East Oregon, who 
has farmed successfully for twenty years without irrigation. 
He is located at Cheyenne, and is now superintending fifty 
different tracts within twenty-five miles of Cheyenne, each 
varying from one to fifty acres. 

"The Cheyenne system is an application of common sense 
principles to farming in an arid region. It embraces thorough 
preparation of the soil by deep plowing and frequent harrow- 
ing, allowing the soil to summer fallow, thereby gaining two 
years' moisture for each crop. From hay and forage alone, 
land hitherto worthless, except for grazing purposes, is being 
quadrupled in value. 

"Dr. Cooke, like AW H. Campbell of the Campbell system, 
guarantees remunerative results in potatoes, dry land alfalfa 
and all cereals which grow by irrigation, if seeds adapted to 
the arid region, and developed from dry land farming, are used, 
and careful and intelligent methods of cultivation pursued. 

"Many Laramie County ranchmen have met with mod- 
erate success in dry farming for years, but expect to materially 
increase their yield under the personal direction of Dr. Cooke." 

The United States land office for this county is located 
at Cheyenne. 



Natrona County. 



Natrona County was organized in 1888. It derives its 
name from the natural deposits of natron, or carbonate of 
soda, found in the numerous basins or lakes that abound in 
that section of Wyoming. Located in almost the geographical 
center of the state, it covers an area of about seventy miles 



36 The State of Wyoming. 

square. The Platte River, with its numerous tributaries trav- 
ersing its entire length, a distance of seventy-five miles from 
east to west, furnishes an abundant supply of water for irriga- 
tion, and as the mean elevation is 5,500 feet, the farmers of 
the county can raise all the hardy grains, vegetables and fruit 
common to the northwestern states. 

At the present time the live stock interest leads all other 
industries in this county. The Fremont, Elkhorn and Mis- 
souri Valley railroad, a branch of the great Northwestern sys- 
tem, affords an outlet to eastern markets. The assessed wealth 
of Natrona County in 1904 was $2,035,491.92. The county in- 
debtedness is $15,900, and the rate of taxation for the year 
1904 was 20 mills. 

The raising of sheep overshadows all other industries. 
The fleece of a Natrona County sheep will average seven 
pounds, and the total wool clip for 1905 approximates 3,000,- 
000 pounds. 

But it is the undeveloped resources of Natrona County 
that offer the greatest inducement for the investment of cap- 
ital. Already the oil industry has reached an important stage 
of development. (See article on Oil.) 

Steam coal exists in Natrona County. Lignite coal, vary- 
ing from a few inches to several feet in thickness, is found in 
various parts of the county. The inexhaustible deposits of 
sulphate and carbonate of soda, which are formed from natural 
springs, will some day be the basis of a great and profitable 
industry, and only await the magic touch of capital and skill 
to develop their greatest possibilities. 

Among the natural wonders of Natrona County are the 
Alcova Hot Springs, which possess medicinal virtues for the 
treatment of rheumatism and kindred diseases. These springs 
are located on the North Platte River, in the mountains, and 
are surrounded with beautiful scenery. Considerable develop- 
ment has been made in the mining of precious metals. De- 
posits of gold and silver ore are found in the mountains. Low 
grade ores, which assay from five to ten dollars a ton, are 
abundant, and in time can be profitably mined. Coal, copper, 
iron and valuable building stone are found in various localities. 
The best developed copper claims in Casper Mountain assay 
from 37 to 40 per cent copper. Asbestos is also found. 

Casper, the county seat of Natrona County, is a thriving 
town of 1,200 inhabitants. It is the western terminus of the 
Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley railroad, which gives 
it a large and important freighting business and trade with 
the country west of Casper, including the prosperous counties 
of Fremont and Hig Horn. Its fine business blocks, churches 



Sheridan County. 



37 



and school houses attest the liberality of the people. Among 
the recent improvements are fine waterworks and a steam 
plant for shearing sheep. There are about 7,000 acres of land 
irrigated, while there are 50,000 acres susceptible of irrigation 
and 3,700,000 acres of pasture lands. 

The United States Government is constructing an im- 
mense dam above Alcova, turning the Grand Canon of the 
Platte into a storage reservoir and affording water for recla- 
mation of arid lands. (See article on North Platte project.) 

The United States land office for this county is located 
at Douglas. 



Sheridan County. 



Sheridan County was organized in 1888, and was named 
for General Phil Sheridan. It is situated in the central part 
of Northern Wyoming. It is ninety miles east and west, and 
thirty miles north and south, containing 2,700 square miles. 
This area is divided as follows : Three hundred and seventy- 
eight thousand acres mountainous, 350,000 acres irrigated or 
capable of irrigation, 1,000,000 acres grazing lands. There 
are now, approximately, 200,000 acres under cultivation. 

The assessed wealth of Sheridan County in 1904 was 
$3,433,524.15; rate of taxation, 20 mills: bonded indebtedness, 
$21,700. 

The principal products of the comity are cattle, hay, oats, 
wheat, potatoes and coal. Farming, in connection with stock 
raising, is the chief occupation of the people, being by far the 
best paying business. This county combines in an exceed- 
ingly favorable manner crop raising and stock raising. The 
range grasses here are considered by stockmen to be unex- 
celled. An evidence of this is in the fact that range beef from 
this county usually brings the highest price for that class of 
beef in the Chicago market. Referring to the crops, they also 
receive the highest awards, both for quality and quantity. 

The climate here is good. The chinook or warm winds 
from the Pacific Ocean keep the range open during the winter. 

The annual output of coal is 500,000 tons, the greater part 
of which is shipped to the Black Hills and points in Nebraska. 
Of wheat, 200,000 bushels are raised each year, the acreage 
being on the increase, but by far the largest - acreage in crops 
is given to the raising of hay, principally alfalfa. This is the 
case where the business is that of stock raising. It is notable, 



38 The State of Wyoming. 

however, that as farmers come into this country from eastern 
states the farm is made to produce greater profit in the raising 
of grain, potatoes and small fruit. This county secured at the 
World's Fair in Chicago a medal for the best spring wheat 
raised in 1893. 

The mountainous part of Sheridan County shows pros- 
pects rich in copper, and good samples of gold, silver, nickel 
and other minerals are found. This part of the county con- 
tains a large number of natural basins for the storage of 
water, which insures a vast development at no distant time 
in the production of crops requiring late irrigation. With 
abundance of water, the prospects in the mountains being 
developed into mines, the whole country being underlaid 
with coal, Sheridan County combines the resources essential 
as a foundation upon which to make a rapid and permanent 
development on a sound basis. 

One of the pleasing features is the excellent trout fishing 
to be found in all of the twenty-two streams flowing from 
the Big Horn Mountains. These streams were found in early 
days to be the natural home of the Rocky Mountain trout. 
Of late years most of the streams have been stocked with 
the eastern brook trout. The Big Horn Mountains afford the 
finest places for summer camping. Summer resorts have been 
erected at some of the lakes in the mountains where the fishing 
is the best, and here one can walk over great drifts of snow, 
which never entirely disappear. 

The Burlington and Missouri railroad has a line travers- 
ing the entire length of the county, and has projected lines in 
other directions. There are ten churches, numerous excellent 
schools, flouring mills, brick yards, a brewery and a number of 
small manufacturing concerns. 

The Town of Sheridan is the county seat of this county, 
charmingly located at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains. 
It has a population of five thousand, and has every improve- 
ment necessary for the enjoyment of a thoroughly up-to-date 
city and has the rural mail delivery system. There are eight 
churches, lodges of all fraternities and a club. Within three 
miles of the city is situated Fort McKenzie, garrisoned by 
United States troops. About twelve miles north of the city 
is the south boundary line of the Crow Indian Reservation, 
from which Indians come to Sheridan in large numbers to 
trade. At Sheridan, also, is located a State Hospital. 

This county is one of the best agriculturally developed 
counties in the state, and is a splendid example of what will 
shortly be done in this line in other counties. 

The United States land office for this county is located 
at Buffalo. 



Sweetwater County. 39 



Sweetwater County. 



This was originally called Carter County, after a pioneer, 
Judge Carter, when a part of Dakota, but upon the organiza- 
tion of the Territory of Wyoming, in 1869, the name was 
changed to Sweetwater, after the Sweetwater River, which 
was so named by General Ashley in 1823. 

The chief industries are coal mining and stock raising. 

In the year 1904 the total assessed value of property in 
the county was $4,072,054.91. The total bonded indebtedness 
is $76,700 ; the rate of taxation, 20 mills. 

Green River, the county seat of Sweetwater County, has 
a population of about 1,200, and is essentially a railroad town, 
being a division point on the Union Pacific. Extensive repair 
shops are operated here by the railroad company. The sur- 
rounding country is devoted largely to the grazing of sheep 
and other live stock. A system of waterworks has been con- 
structed at a cost of nearly half a million dollars, for the pur- 
pose of pumping water from Green River to Rock Springs, a 
distance of eighteen miles, where extensive coal mining opera- 
tions are carried on by the Union Pacific. Large quantities 
of ice are annually stored at Green River, and during the 
summer season between four and five hundred thousand rail- 
road ties and mine props are floated down the river and 
distributed at this point. A saw mill is maintained for the 
manufacture of rough lumber!. 

The most promising industry in Green River, at the pres- 
ent time, is the production of sal soda, which is likely to 
assume vast proportions in a short time. Several wells have 
been sunk on the bottoms of Green River, that yield an in- 
exhaustible supply of water containing an average of twenty- 
five per cent of soda crystals, or, in other words, twenty-five 
pounds of sal soda to every one hundred pounds of water. 
The development of this industry at first was very much 
retarded by the failure to secure freight rates that would en- 
able the chemical company to place their product on the 
market. A few months ago rates were obtained that enables 
this product to compete at Missouri River points and on the 
Pacific coast. The result was that in September last the com- 
pany shipped 150 tons of sal soda, which had a market value 
at Omaha of $24 per ton. Wyoming sal soda is superior to 
that manufactured from salt, and has been given the prefer- 
ence wherever installed. 



40 The; State of Wyoming. 

Rock Springs. — Eighteen miles distant on the line of the 
Union Pacific is located the town of Rock Springs. Here are 
operated the largest coal mines in the state. It has a popula- 
tion of 5,000, composed very largely of miners, and is one of 
the most active business points in Wyoming. It is well built, 
having fine business blocks, a water system, electric light plant 
and a magnificent $25,000 city hall. At this point is located 
the W r yoming General Hospital, maintained by the state. 

The citizenship of Rock Springs is cosmopolitan. Twen- 
ty-five languages are spoken, and almost every important 
country on the face of the earth is represented. 

Rock Springs is a great wholesaling point. Here is found 
some of the greatest stocks of merchandise in the state, and 
the merchants push their trade into the mining districts of 
Central Wyoming and the cattle and sheep country lying in 
all directions from this enterprising market. 

Industries. — The county is well suited to sheep raising, 
and many citizens are so engaged. The broken and diversified 
character of the country, covered as it is with white sage and 
nutritious grasses, furnishes just the conditions conducive to 
the successful management of that class of live stock, 450,000 
head being run upon the plains. 

The entire county is underlaid with veins of coal, which, 
however, have been more extensively developed at Rock 
Springs than elsewhere, and the term Rock Springs coal is 
synonymous throughout the west with coal of exceptional 
quality. The output is 2,000,000 tons per annum. 

There are vast areas of undeveloped coal lands in the 
county, principally to the north of the railroad, much of which 
on being prospected shows excellent coal in veins from three 
to twelve feet thick. 

The Red Desert, lying in the eastern half of Sweetwater 
county and the western portion of Carbon County, was long 
thought to be absolutely valueless, but in recent years it has 
proved of great worth as the winter range of many thousands 
of sheep. There are no streams to provide water for sheep in 
summer, but just as soon as the winter snows arrive the sheep 
thrive thereon wonderfully well and the desert is transformed 
into a scene of animation. This range, aside from the railroad 
lands, is without charge to the flockmaster. 

The United States land office for this county is located at 
Evanston, except for a few townships in the eastern portion 
of the county, which are in the Cheyenne land office district. 



Uinta County. 41 



Uinta County 



Uinta County was organized in 1869, and was named for 
the Uintah Indians. It lies in the extreme western portion of 
the state and extends from the northern boundary of Utah to 
the southern boundary of the Yellowstone National Park. It 
covers over 15,000 square miles, and much of this vast area 
is unentered government land. The Union Pacific railroad 
crosses the county in its southern portion, and the Oregon 
Short Line in the south central portion. The elevation ranges 
from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. 

Topography. — The county is characterized by a charming 
alternation of wooded hill and arable valley, of rolling upland 
pasturage and well drained meadow. Some parts of the county 
are very mountainous, but broad extents of valleys and 
plateaus blend with the hills in charming and picturesque 
beauty. The mountains are cut by a number of swift rivers 
running through deep canons, and the valleys are threaded 
by the numerous forks and tributaries of these rivers. Fair 
lakes are embosomed in the hills and feed great rivers and 
streams. 

Streams. — The rivers of the county are the Bear, Green, 
Salt and Snake. The principal tributaries of Bear River are 
Black's Fork, Twin Creek and Smith's Fork. Those of the 
Green are Horse, Cottonwood, the three Piney Creeks, La 
Barge, Fontenelle and Henry's Fork Creeks. Those of the 
Snake are Buffalo Fork, Gros Ventre and Hoback's Rivers 
from the eastward, and John Day's and Salt Rivers from the 
south. 

Besides the lakes and rivers, there are about forty named 
creeks of considerable size traversing the surface of the county. 

Statistics. — Lands and improvements are assessed at 
$1,797,666; total assessed valuation of all property, $5,747,- 
805.31; rate of taxation, state and county, 19 mills; county 
debt, $99,500 (bonded) ; number of schools, 69 ; teachers, 81 ; 
districts, 21 ; school children between five and seventeen years, 
4,408; population, census of 1900, 12,223; present population, 
about 16,000. 

Principal Towns. — The county seat is Evanston ; popula- 
tion, 2,110. It is pleasantly situated in the Bear River Valley; 
has many natural advantages, and is one of the most progres- 
sive and attractive towns in the state. It is the home of 



42 The State oe Wyoming. 

prosperous merchants, cattlemen and sheepmen. Union Pa- 
cific shops are located here, and there are two banks, two 
newspapers, five churches, commodious brick school house, 
large court house and jail, electric light plant, waterworks 
and three hotels. The State Insane Asylum is situated here 
and also the United States land office for Evanston district. 
Diamondville, Kemmerer, Cokeville and Cumberland are the 
principal towns on the Oregon Short Line, and are large coal 
producers. The coal of Uinta County is but slightly exposed, 
being largely covered by the tertiary ; and it is only where 
recent erosion has occurred that the coal outcrops. Owing to 
this fact, it may be years before the full extent of the coal 
lands of Uinta County is thoroughly known. The output is 
extensively used by the smelters of Montana, the railroads 
of Utah, Idaho, Oregon, California and Nebraska, for which 
purposes it is admirably suited. 

Star Valley, a fine agricultural section, 125 miles distant 
from the county seat, is traversed by Salt River, Cottonwood 
Creek, mountain streams and many large canals and laterals. 
The population is about 3,000. The people, mostly Mormons, 
arc thrifty and prosperous. They raise timothy and alfalfa, 
hay, oats, barley and winter wheat, large crops of potatoes 
and garden truck, and in agricultural wealth and splendid 
ranges for cattle, rival the people of the southern end of the 
county. In this beautiful valley several creameries have been 
established, and their products have become famous through- 
out the west. They not only supply the local demand, but 
ship butter and cheese to Butte, Anaconda, Helena and the 
cities and towns of Oregon and Washington. 

There are many thousand acres of good agricultural land 
open for settlement under the homestead and desert entry 
laws of the United States. This land is admirably adapted 
for the cultivation of hay and small grain crops, and there is 
an abundance of water for irrigation purposes. Settlers would 
be welcomed, and there are good opportunities for those who 
have a little capital, as good land already brought under cul- 
tivation can be purchased for from four to ten dollars per 
acre. School, road and mail facilities are already well estab- 
lished, and railroad communication is easy of access. 

This county has developed wonderful oil fields. (See 
article on Oil.) 

The famous Jackson Hole and Jackson Lake lie in the 
northern part of the county, south of the Yellowstone National 
Park. Jackson's Hole was named in 1828 after David E. 
Jackson, a wealthy partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany. Jackson Hole is an extensive valley of fertile land and 



Uinta County. 43 

some good farms, and is traversed by Snake River and num- 
erous creeks. Prior to 1871 Jackson Hole was practically 
unknown to others than the hardy trapper and prospector, 
and it was not then supposed that this great valley would 
one day become an important part of the body politic of the 
State of Wyoming, and that magnificent farms and homes 
would cover its fertile expanse, or the range of the wild game, 
in its last retreat before the perpetual blow of the advance of 
civilization. The soil of Jackson Hole is a rich sandy loam, 
and while the principal crops produced are native hay and tame 
grasses, vegetables and small fruits mature and are raised in 
sufficient quantities to supply all local demand. All kinds of 
cereals will mature, and while the approximate elevation of 
the valley is 6,200 feet above sea level, the surrounding moun- 
tains protect it from the killing winds and insure its becoming 
one of the future agricultural districts of the state. The stock 
interests consist entirely of cattle and horses. Owing to the 
location and conditions surrounding it, the valley is not a good 
place for sheep. Stock is generally Ted and sheltered during 
the more inclement part of the winter. Hay in great quan- 
tities is raised and is worth from $2.50 to $3.50 per ton. A 
ton of hay will feed each head of grown stock. Ranchmen 
following the cattle business have without exception become 
well-to-do, building large irrigation canals, comfortable resi- 
dences and large barns for the shelter of their stock. Im- 
provement is everywhere evident, and for a new community 
Jackson Hole has as many valuable ranch improvements as 
any other new community in the state. 

Prospects have been found that indicate that there is 
mineral in the vicinity of this valley. Since i860 the bars on 
the Snake River have been worked for placer gold, and good 
wages can be and are now obtained by sluicing or rocking 
the gravel. Where the gold comes from has never been de- 
termined ; that it is there is beyond question. Coal beds of 
vast dimensions and superior quality lie on the east side of 
the Gros Ventre River. (See article on Game and Fish.) 

Soil. — The soil is of three distinct classes : First, the 
bottom or meadow lands, usually possessing a rich, black and 
somewhat heavy soil, lying next to the streams, always easily 
irrigated, and on that account generally the most desired by 
settlers; second, the bench lands, rising terrace-like toward 
the neighboring hills, possessing as a soil a warm, sandy loam, 
always easily drained, usually presenting no great obstacle to 
irrigation, and now being generally recognized as the soil 
capable of the widest range of production ; third, the high 
bluff lands, watered by numerous streams, usually too sandy 



44 The State oe Wyoming. 

for cultivation, but naturally affording the most ample and 
nutritious pasturage for horses, cattle and sheep. 

Climate. — The winters are not severe, and the summers 
are always temperate. Clear, frosty days, with an occasional 
exceptionally cold night; usually severe weather in March; 
some very warm days in summer, but always cool and reviv- 
ing breezes in the night. 

Agriculture. — The production of timothy and wild hay, 
alfalfa, oats, potatoes, winter wheat, and in some sections 
barley, occupy the whole attention of Uinta County farmers. 
Possessing a soil singularly fertile and lasting, this county 
offers exceptional inducements to the agriculturist, with the 
assurance that the waters will never fail, that his crops will 
never be blighted by drought, and abundant harvest will 
surely follow seed time. 

Timber. — Throughout the county timber is abundant on 
the hill sides for lumber, fuel and mining purposes. Yellow 
and white pine, some cedar and spruce, cottonwood and aspen, 
are the principal growths. Saw mills are in operation in many 
portions of the county, and much lumber is produced. 

The United States land office for this county is at Ev- 
anston. 



Weston County. 



Weston County was organized in 1890, and was named 
after a gentleman of that name, who was interested in build- 
ing the Burlington railroad through that section of the state. 
It is 100 miles long by forty-eight miles wide, comprising 
3,133,440 acres, and has a population of 3,203. The total as- 
sessed valuation of all kinds of property in 1904 was $1,862,- 
842.34, divided as follows : Farm lands and improvements, 
$316,046.36; town lots and improvements, $118,301; cattle, 
$559-337 5 horses, $98,151; sheep, $287,894.30. County in- 
debtedness, $33,820; rate of taxation, 19% mills. 

Weston County, although enjoying an altitude between 
4,000 and 5,000 feet above the sea level and possessing good 
soils, is not so well watered as other sections of the state, 
owing to the absence of large streams having their sources 
in the lofty mountains of the snowy ranges. The rainfall, 
however, is considerably greater than at a higher altitude, 
averaging from eighteen to twenty inches per annum. The 
dark, loamy soils, in part of the county, are quite productive 



Weston County. 45 

without irrigation, and the reddish gypsum soils found at the 
base of table lands retain the moisture and are very fertile. 
Precipitation is mainly in the spring and early summer, and 
crops make rapid progress from germination to maturity. 
Wild fruits of the smaller varieties, such as plums, goose- 
berries, currants and strawberries, grow plentifully. All the 
farm products known in the northern latitudes are produced 
in this region, even Indian corn, and the yield is most excel- 
lent. Wheat of the spring varieties yields over fifty bushels, 
rye over forty, oats seventy to even one hundred bushels, and 
corn, of the flint, dent and squaw varieties, also makes good 
returns. Timothy, alfalfa, red clover and other tame grasses 
are cultivated with success, as are also potatoes, rutabagas, 
turnips, carrots and sugar beets, the last named producing as 
high as six tons per acre, with twenty per cent of sugar, as 
shown by analysis. Stock growing makes an excellent ac- 
companiment of farming throughout this region. Shorthorn, 
Hereford, Sussex and West Highlands cattle find favor for 
the range. Horses also receive much attention and are in- 
creasing in value. There is good pine timber in the Black 
Hills, and numerous saw mills supply the wants of the settler. 
Gypsum is found in inexhaustible quantities, and superior 
quality of building stone, granite and lime. Salt producing 
springs have been discovered near Jenney's Stockade, and an 
oil district in the same locality covers over 400 square miles. 
(See article on Oil.) Weston County is famous for its coal, 
which finds a ready market in the adjoining states of South 
Dakota and Nebraska, and along the line of the Burlington 
railroad, which traverses the entire length of the county, east 
and west. 

Newcastle, the county seat, is a thriving town. The first 
building was erected in September, 1889, the Burlington rail- 
road having reached that point in the previous month. After 
the discovery of coal the population grew very rapidly, and 
in 1900 was 756. In 1890 extensive waterworks were con- 
structed at a- cost of over $100,000 by the Cambria Mining 
Company, which furnishes an abundant supply of water for 
Newcastle, Cambria and the great coal mines. A $6,000 town 
hall and $12,000 school building have been erected. Within 
the immediate vicinity are several oil wells, the first discovery 
being made fifteen years ago. Salt wells have been opened in 
the vicinity of Newcastle, and promise to develop into a large 
and profitable industry. All lines of business are well repre- 
sented and prosperous. 

Cambria is a coal mining town, the population being 
actively engaged in that industry. The quality of coal mined 



46 The State of Wyoming. 

is excellent, and is described elsewhere in this publication*. 
Modern equipment and methods are the characteristics of the 
mining plant. The coal here is of a coking quality, and coke 
ovens are in operation. The population of the Cambria dis- 
trict is 962. 

The United States land office for this county is located 
at Sundance. 



Yellowstone National Park, 

The Wonderland of America. 



If all the other resources of Wyoming could fail, it would 
still be known to the world through the Yellowstone National 
Park. 

The park was discovered by John Colter in 1807, but its 
final disclosure to the world was the work of three exploring 
parties in the years 1869, 1870 and 1871. It was finally re- 
served as a national park by act of Congress in 1872. It lies 
in the northwest corner of Wyoming ; is sixty-two miles long 
by fifty-four miles wide. Its government and control is under 
the special authority of the federal government. 

The scenery of the park is not equaled by anything in the 
world. It is too grand, its scope too immense, its details too 
varied and minute, to admit of even an attempt at its descrip- 
tion within these pages, for nearly every form, animate or 
inanimate, in dream or fancy, ever seen or conjured by the 
imagination, may here be seen. Its colors and blended tints 
baffle the artist's brush, and language is inadequate for its 
portrayal. It is here in this vast solitude that one stands in 
silent awe and hears the deep diapason of nature's mightiest 
and most mysterious anthem as it swells in thunder tones or 
sinks into sweetest, softest melodies. Here, too, is found 
much that is chastely beautiful, hidden away in some dim- 
lighted alcove or bower, while all about is the grim-visaged 
and towering strength of the silent mountain sentinel. The 
eye is never weary, for the scene is ever shifting, ever becom- 
ing more and more grand, imposing and impressive. 

Placed as it is upon the very apex of the continent, its 
seasons are "July, August and Winter." In the summer, July 
and August, the long-imprisoned vegetation bursts into full 
life and beauty, and in this short period occur the changes 
which require months in lower altitudes. The average snow- 
fall,, from November to April, is ten feet. 



Yellowstone National Park. 47 

The tourist season lasts from June until October, and 
nowhere can be found a more delightful summer climate. 
Every year shows an increase in the tourist travel to this 
region, which the government so wisely controls and protects 
for the enjoyment of the public. The park can be reached by 
wagon routes, which make very pleasant camping trips 
through beautiful and diversified scenic country. Probably 
the most picturesque route is from Cody on the Burlington 
and Missouri railroad, from which point a new road has 
been constructed by the government. This trip is fifty miles 
long, and can be made on splendid tally-ho coaches managed 
by Colonel Cody (Buffalo Bill). Tourists can stop over mid- 
way and rest and fish for the speckled trout, and also make 
side trips into the famous Jackson Hole country. The scenery 
on this route equals, if it does not surpass, anything in the 
Alps. Guides and camping outfits can be obtained at Cody. 
This makes a very pleasant method of seeing the park. 

The park can also be reached from Rawlins on the Union 
Pacific railroad through the Shoshone Indian Reservation ; 
also from Casper on the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Val- 
ley railroad through the Indian Reservation. By wagon this 
makes a delightful trip, passing nearly all the way through a 
country of wonderful scenery and abounding in game and 
fish. The government has expended $40,000 in making this 
route an enjoyable one for the park visitor. 

Many visitors choose a northern entrance, coming by way 
of the Northern Pacific to Livingstone on the main line; 
thence a branch road fifty miles long drops almost directly 
south to Cinnabar, Montana, eight miles from Mammoth Hot 
Springs, Wyoming, and Fort Yellowstone, where the itinerary 
of the tourist choosing this route commences. 

The trip as planned by the Yellowstone Park Transporta- 
tion Company occupies five days, and includes the main points 
of interest, but each hotel may become the center of enjoyable 
side trips, if the visitor has time and means to tarry. 

The Union Pacific and its branch, the Oregon Short Line, 
bring the travel to Monida, a station on the boundary of 
Montana and Idaho. Here he exchanges the Pullman for the 
modern Concord coach, which the Monida and Yellowstone 
Stage Company has in readiness for him. Although a day's 
ride from the boundary of the park, a tourist is seldom found 
who cares to forget that first day's coaching. The invig- 
orating air, the ever-changing view of mountain and lake, 
good horses, a good driver and good meals at every station, 
combine to drive into the background the cares of his worka- 
day life. This route connects with the belt line at the Foun- 
tain Hotel in the Lower Geyser Basin. 



48 The State oe Wyoming. 

All stage lines are equipped with the best and most mod- 
ern coaches. Necessary hand baggage is carried, and trunks 
are stored free of charge. Parties coming in by one route and 
desiring to leave by the other may have their baggage trans- 
ferred without cost. 

Hotel rates are four dollars per day. There are four 
modern hotels, with electric light, baths and telegraphic com- 
munication with all parts of the world. These are so situated 
that coaches reach them before an early dinner hour and leave 
after breakfast. The midday meal is procured at lunch sta- 
tions conveniently placed between the hotels. 

The Wylie Camping Company furnishes still another way 
of doing the park. It stands in about the same relation to the 
two just described that an accommodation train does to the 
Pullman flyer. One travels the same road and has the same 
views, but from a two-horse spring wagon instead of a four- 
horse Concord coach. He sleeps in a tent, dines from a camp 
table, and pays thirty-five dollars for his week in the park. 

Last of all comes the independent camper, who cooks his 
meals in the geyser wells, finds plenty of suitable camping 
places, and may have a very good time with small expense, if 
he is careful to quench his camp fire, and keeps his dog tied 
under the wagon, or, better still, leaves him at home. 

The government has spent $40,000 in the construction of 
wagon roads leading from the south and east; the former 
from Fort Washakie to Jackson Lake, directly south of the 
park. From this point a good road connects with the belt line 
at Yellowstone Lake. The traveler taking this route passes 
within the shadow of the Grand Teton and along the margin 
of Jackson Lake, a combination of water and mountain scenery 
unsurpassed for grandeur and beauty. 

As the United States has sole and exclusive jurisdiction 
over the park, its protection and improvement are under the 
direction of government officers. Fort Yellowstone, located 
at Mammouth Hot Springs, is a two-troop cavalry post. The 
commanding officer is the acting superintendent of the park. 
The LJnited States Commissioner, who has civil jurisdiction 
of all crimes and offenses committed within the park, is sta- 
tioned here. There are also ten outposts throughout the park, 
at each of which are stationed a non-commissioned officer and 
a small squad of men, who patrol the entire area of the park 
both summer and winter. 

All roads are constructed and kept in repair at the expense 
of the government. The road leading south from Mammoth 
Hot Springs at Norris Geyser Basin, twenty miles from Mam- 
moth Hot Springs, intersects the belt line, which describes a 




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Live Stock. 49 

circle of one hundred miles, and upon which is situated nearly 
all the most prominent points of interest. Twenty miles of 
the one hundred can be covered by steamer across Yellowstone 
Lake, if the traveler so elects, for an extra fare of three dollars. 
The English language is rich in adjectives, and all have 
been brought into service, but failed to picture the park. In 
spite of the attempts of the word painter, it has not been de- 
scribed. Each one must see for himself to appreciate the 
generosity of Mother Nature, who has planned entertainment 
for every mood of every character. The poet may find his 
theme, the artist an inexhaustible supply of studies, the 
scientist a rich field for work. The lover of the grotesque 
will linger in the hoodoos. The mud geyser will satisfy a 
craving for the horrible. Spluttering pools and boiling springs 
will testify that the stokers of the lower regions are never off 
duty. The geysers bear a family resemblance to one another, 
but each has an individuality in cone and action. The Grand 
Canon, with its many-hued walls, might alone invite the world 
to be its guest. Fish are waiting to be caught, but deer and 
other game seem to realize that they are the wards of the 
government, and only pose for the admiration or the camera 
of the visitor. Bears never fail to furnish the after dinner 
amusement at the hotels. 



Live Stock. 



The live stock industry of Wyoming, which for a long 
time was its only industry, has a history as varied and romantic 
as a Sixteenth Century tale. When the country now com- 
prised in this state was first discovered a luxuriant grass 
covered the prairies, upon which nothing but buffalo and 
wild game grazed. Her first herds were gathered and reared 
by men who preceded the first attempts at actual settlement of 
the territory. Lying in the pathway of that great migration 
to the Pacific coast, which began in the middle of the past 
century, her territory was necessarily traversed by countless 
long trains of ox teams, many of which, through accident or 
disease, were destined never to reach their journey's end. 
Sick, injured, footsore and poor, these animals were abandoned 
to live as best they might, or become a prey for the wild ani- 
mals of mountain and plain. That many of them lived through 
the winter following and were fat enough for beef in the early 
springtime proved a revelation to the man accustomed to long 



50 The State of Wyoming. 

and expensive winter feeding, and forced his attention to the 
fact that our mountain grasses must possess nutritious qual- 
ities of marvelous worth. To raise cattle, horses and sheep 
was, for our earliest settlers, an easy matter, but to keep them 
was quite a different proposition, for the Indian had little 
respect for the rights of ownership, and no horse was safe 
beyond the reach of a bullet from his owner's trusty rifle. 
When the white man came to stay he brought vast herds of 
cattle that thrived on the strong and nutritious grasses of the 
open range. Fast following these early days of settlement, 
of danger and accumulation, came the "boom" in the cattle 
business during the '80s, marked by the investment of millions 
of dollars by men who knew nothing of the business in which 
they so recklessly embarked. The period of unwarranted 
speculation, fancy prices and extravagant waste was of short 
duration, and, naturally enough, was followed by rapid de- 
pression of prices and the consequent failures of the inex- 
perienced. 

Following this appeared the ranchmen of moderate means, 
having smaller herds of cattle, who had learned from bitter 
experience that feed must be provided for severe winters. 
Thus ranches were settled and irrigated — alfalfa, hay and 
other feed provided — rendering the business that was formerly 
so precarious a safe and steady avocation, and one that is 
rapidly giving our people wealth and independence. 

The live stock industry has been the most remunerative 
business of this section of the west ; mining and agriculture 
are fast becoming close competitors. As to which branch of 
the business — cattle, sheep or horses— one should adopt, no 
advice can be given. One should follow that for which he is 
best adapted. Large fortunes and many comfortable com- 
petencies have been and are being made in each branch. 

CATTLE. 

This great industry, combined with farming, offers splen- 
did opportunities for profitable investment. Today cattle are 
successfully grown in every section of the state. 

We still have forty million acres of free government 
range upon which our farmers graze their herds, and doubt- 
less over half the cattle in Wyoming are run on this open 
range during the entire year; although our stock growers 
generally appreciate the importance of winter feeding and 
are rapidly increasing hay and grain production. 

Wyoming can grow better beef at less cost than almost 
any other section, for the reason that land values are very 
low as compared with other states. And there is ample free 



Live Stock. 51 

range upon which the cattle graze over half the year; more- 
over, alfalfa, hay and oats combined form a perfect ration 
for the correct and complete development of bone, muscle 
and flesh, while our natural buffalo grass and bluestem hay 
excel the famous bluegrass of Kentucky. Under irrigation, 
these can be quickly and cheaply grown, while our cloudless 
summer skies permit us to harvest these crops so as to retain 
all nutritive properties. 

Blood and feed, combined with ideal natural conditions, 
in a land where disease is unknown, enable us to defy the 
world in breeding live stock. Our winters are dry and mild, 
and in most sections cattle graze in the open fields during 
the entire season. 

All "beef" breeds do well and show marked improve- 
ment in this high altitude. Many pedigreed herds could be 
established here successfully, while experiments made by our 
more progressive ranchmen have demonstrated conclusively 
that steers can be hay-fed and matured during the winter 
with great profit. 

Dairying is also a paying branch of the cattle industry. 

SHEEP. 

Since 1883 the sheep industry has grown enormously, and 
many heretofore poor men have become rich, some owning as 
many as 65,000 head. Sheep are grazed in the mountains in 
the summer, and in the winter upon the plains, where they 
find the cured grass, as Nature provides it, together with the 
browse furnished by the sage brush. A sheep man needs no 
ranch and makes no preparations in the way of harvested feed 
for the winter, but, like Abraham of old, moves about with 
his flocks, in the summer living in tents in the cool shades of 
the mountains, and in winter in a "sheep wagon," which is 
fully equipped with spring bed, stove and kitchen outfit. 
Sheep are subject to no disease except scab, which is easily 
cured. The wool, at fifteen cents per pound, a little more 
than pays all the cost of running the sheep a year, so that 
the increase and mutton are the accumulated net profit. 

Wyoming leads all the western states and territories in 
the price per head of its sheep, and leads every state in the 
Union in total value of its sheep, the number and value of its 
lambs, and the amount and value of its wool clip, and the 
average weight of fleece produced. 

As the sheep have multiplied and the free range dimin- 
ished through settlement and segregation, our flockmasters 
have been keenly alive to the importance of improving the 
quality of the wool and the necessity of early maturity in 
mutton ; hence we now find the lambs going to market in 



52 The State of Wyoming. 

an ever-increasing flood, while winter feeding of lambs is 
rapidly becoming an important branch of the sheep industry. 
Lambs are fed on alfalfa hay, together with grain of some 
sort or peas, and in one hundred days of winter feeding made 
to weigh eighty to ninety pounds. Mutton so produced is 
considered by epicures the best in the market. Sheep on the 
open range seem to stand more severe winter weather than 
cattle. Nevertheless, it is only a question of a few years until 
our flockmasters must expect to feed some hay or grain dur- 
ing the winter. Fortunately, the great government irrigation 
projects now under way will doubtless be completed in time 
to supply this growing demand. 

HORSES. 

It has been proven beyond question that horses raised on 
the foothills and mountains, in the pure light air of an eleva- 
tion of from 5,000 to 10,000 feet, have better lungs, stronger 
and better developed bone and muscle, and tougher hoofs, 
than horses from any other country. This is borne out by 
the fact that not only the United States Government, during 
the Spanish war and since, but the English Government, for 
service in South Africa, have purchased as many thousand 
head of horses in Wyoming as could be obtained. 

No horse in the world can compete with the Wyoming 
horse in endurance of all kinds of hardship to which horse 
flesh is subjected by man. This is a broad statement, but we 
make it without fear of refutation ; every horseman and horse 
in the state stands ready to back it up. 

Embracing about 98,000 square miles of territory, nearly 
every acre of which is clothed in a mantle of the most nutri- 
tious grasses and sage brush browse, Wyoming presents a 
territory for grazing purposes 40 per cent larger than is found 
in all the eastern states combined. Add to this vast food 
supply the most delightful climate in the world, with cool 
summers and dry, mild winters, and it is but little wonder 
that Wyoming has been called the "Stockman's Paradise," 
and that it has become an important factor in supplying beef, 
mutton and wool to the eastern and western markets. 

The requisites for success in the business are a few cattle, 
sheep or horses, and attention to their wants under the con- 
ditions of the country and climate. The man who can do this 
for a few years will, with common prudence, find himself 
independent of the world, and his old age may be spent in 
peace and with plenty. 

The cut on opposite page is a picture of "Wyoming," the 
horse presented by the City of Douglas to President Roose- 
velt when he made his famous sixty-mile ride during his visit 
to the state in May, 1903. 



Live; Stock. 



53 




" Wyoming," the Horse Presented to President Roosevelt. 



This horse, taken from the range, is a marvel of equine 
intelligence, is possessed of five different gaits, and is a swift 
and easy, traveler. The horse is now in the White House 
stables in Washington. 

Wyoming horses are unexcelled. 

SWINE. 

Swine do remarkably well in our state, hog cholera being 
unknown, and it is said that young shoats born in our high 
altitude are not liable to contract the disease when shipped 
east to be finished on corn. Swine do well the year round on 
alfalfa. In the summer they are turned in to the green alfalfa 
fields and in the winter fed on the dry hay. The best of pork 
can be produced very cheaply on a combination feed of 
alfalfa, roots, small grain or peas. 

Today Wyoming imports a large proportion of the salt 
pork, bacon and ham consumed by her citizens, amounting 
to tens of thousands of dollars' worth each year. The freight 
rate from the eastern market is very high, and this meat 
could be produced in Wyoming with great profit. 



54 The State of Wyoming. 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects 

And the Laws Under Which They Are 
Being Administered. 



GOVERNMENT RECLAMATION SERVICE. 

In the arid states the people are of the opinion that they 
will derive greater benefit during the next decade through 
the operation of the act of Congress approved June ij, 1902, 
than through all other agricultural channels. Wyoming 
takes particular pride in this act, for the reason that its con- 
gressional delegation was the great moving force in securing 
its enactment. In season and out of season its representa- 
tives in the halls of Congress have advocated the reclamation 
of the arid lands of the mountain states, and the reclamation 
act is the result of their tireless efforts. 

Under this law all the moneys received from the sale 
of public lands goes into a fund for the building of reservoirs 
and canals for the storage of water and the irrigation of 
lands. More than twenty-seven millions of dollars have 
already been placed to the credit of this fund, and numerous 
projects have been entered upon by the Geological Survey, 
the Bureau of the Department of the Interior having direct 
charge of the work. 

Wyoming has not been neglected. For two big enter- 
prises, the Secretary of the Interior has set aside $3,250,000 — 
$2,250,000 for the Shoshone project and $1,000,000 for the 
North Platte project. For the information in this chapter 
relating to these projects, we are indebted to Mr. John E. 
Field, engineer in charge of the reclamation work on the 
North Platte River, and Mr. Jeremiah Ahern, engineer in 
charge of the work on the Shoshone River. 

It may be safely stated that there will be expended in 
this state by the federal government during the next decade 
fully ten millions of dollars. This vast sum will mean great 
prosperity to many people. The men who will take up the 
land under the big reservoirs and canals will undoubtedly 
be given an opportunity to perform a great deal of the work 
in constructing the dams and ditches. In this way they 
will be enabled to maintain themselves during the entire 
building period, and at the same time they will find oppor- 
tunity to improve their homesteads. 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 55 



NORTH PLATTE PROJECT. 

This project contemplates, first, the building of the res- 
ervoir on the North Platte River, fifty miles above the town 
of Casper. The river will be. dammed at a point three miles 
below the mouth of the Sweetwater, the location being a 
granite canon, about 200 feet deep, 80 feet at the bottom and 
175 feet at the top. The dam will be of masonry, and the 
area covered about 22,000 acres, the capacity being one 
million acre feet. The entire flow of the Platte River at this 
point passes through the reservoir and can be stored. The 
stored water will be turned loose and allowed to run down 
the river to the headgates of the several ditches under con- 
templation, thus giving assurance of an ample supply of water 
at all times. 

The Chicago and Northwestern railway reaches Casper 
from the east, which line may be reached over the Colorado 
and Southern railway from Cheyenne. 

The wasteway will be over the granite ridge at both 
ends of the dam, no water being allowed to flow over the 
dam. Power may be developed here whenever necessary. 
The elevation of the reservoir is about 5,800 feet above sea 
level. 

Canals. 

The first canal, contemplated below the reservoir, heads 
about eight miles above the town of Casper, on the south 
side of the river, and extends easterly to a point about opposite 
Douglas, Wyo. The amount of land under the canal is about 
30,000 acres. Preliminary surveys and estimates only have 
been made. These estimates show that the cost of reclama- 
tion will probably exceed $25 per acre. Most of the land is 
in private ownership. The second canal is on the north side 
of the river, heading about opposite Glenrock and extending 
to Orin. It controls about 20,000 acres. The cost will prob- 
ably be in excess of $25. Most of this land is in private 
ownership. Preliminary surveys only have been made. 

The Groshen Hole Canal heads at the town of Guernsey, 
where a diversion dam 100 feet high is necessary. The length 
of the canal will be about 140 miles, of which six miles are 
in tunnel. The area of land covered is about 150,000 acres, 
a large part being public land. The cost of reclamation has 
not been definitely determined, but it will probably be in the 
neighborhood of $35 per acre. The feasibility of the canal 
has not yet been passed upon, further investigation being 
necessary. 



56 The State of Wyoming. 

Fort Laramie Canal, heading about eight miles above old 
Fort Laramie, on the south side of the river, covers some 
50,000 acres, about equally divided between Wyoming and 
Nebraska. Twenty-five thousand acres are included in the 
estimate of the 150,000 acres under the Goshen Hole Canal. 
Preliminary surveys only have' been made, but the indica- 
tions are that the project is feasible. 

The Interstate Canal heads at the same point as the Fort 
Laramie Canal, namely eight miles above old Fort Laramie. 
There will be a diversion dam of concrete, 300 feet long, 
raising water ten feet above the bed of the river. This canal 
will be an enlargement of the Whalen Falls Canal. About 
20,000 acres lying under the canal will be irrigated by the 
Whalen Falls Canal Company. It is expected that the water 
will be available for this land in the summer of 1906. Con- 
tracts for the first forty-five miles of this canal were let May 
16. This first forty-five miles carries the canal nearly to the 
state line, and it is expected that the contract for the next 
fifty miles of canal will cover some 10,000 acres in Wyoming 
and some 50,000 acres in Nebraska, almost all of which is 
public land. The canal, when completed, will cover probably 
100,000 acres of land, and it is hoped that it will extend as 
far east as Bridgeport. The cost per acre will probably not 
exceed $35. The Whalen Falls Canal has a priority calling 
for 280 cubic feet per second of water, but has no reservoir 
right. It is proposed to build all the laterals from the main 
canal, reaching practically every farm area. These farm areas 
will probably consist of eighty acres of good arable land, the 
homestead entry being limited to that amount. It is also 
proposed to build other canals on both sides of the river in 
Nebraska, probably by the extension of existing canals. This 
matter has not been investigated, but it is hoped to bring 
50,000 acres more under cultivation by this means. The area 
to be irrigated, especially that in Nebraska and in the Goshen 
Hole, is comparable with land in and about Greeley, Colo. 
The elevation is about 4,000 feet and the rainfall about thirteen 
inches per annum. The character of the soil is a sandy loam, 
with little alkali and little adobe. The Burlington railroad 
runs the entire length of the Goshen Hole and Interstate Canal 
lands. It is some 500 miles from Omaha and some 250 miles 
from Denver. The prevailing winds are from the northwest, 
the maximum velocity for 1903 being forty-five miles per 
hour. The mean temperature was about 45 , Avith a maximum 
of 98 and a minimum of 20 . Humidity, 66%. The evapo- 
ration over the area to be irrigated is about the same as for 
Eastern Colorado. Corn is successfully grown, frosts seldom 
interfering with its maturing. 




5 s z 
2 < s 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 57 

Agricultural Possibilities. — The value of the non-irrigable 
land is from one to five dollars per acre. The value of irri- 
gated land from forty to seventy dollars per acre. Alfalfa is 
the principal crop of the region, though oats of superior qual- 
ity are grown extensively. Throughout the district in Ne- 
braska and the Goshen Hole sugar beets and potatoes will 
form the principal crop for intensified cultivation. The crops 
are about as follows : 

Alfalfa, three crops, four to six tons per acre. 

Sugar beets average about fifteen tons per acre. 

Potatoes, 200 bushels. 

Oats, 60 bushels. 

Corn, 40 bushels. 

Wheat, 35 bushels. 

The domestic water supply is good, water being obtain- 
able at almost any point by wells 200 feet or less in depth. 
Sugar beet and starch factories will probably be built when 
the district is settled. The ranges surrounding the district 
will furnish sheep and cattle to be fed on the farm products. 
Good grazing land lies to the north, south and west of the 
district. The fuel supply is obtained from Northern Colorado 
and from Sheridan and Hanna, Wyo. Coal sells from five 
to seven dollars per ton. 

Markets. — Agricultural products will probably find their 
best markets to the west for feeding in winter. The price 
of alfalfa per ton during the last year was $4 ; potatoes, 40 
cents per bushel. This was very low, due to the big yield in 
other sections. Beets should bring $5 per ton and wild hay 
$12. Oats sold for $1 per cwt. The market for cattle and 
sheep would be Denver, Omaha and Kansas City. 

Supply Markets. — Supplies are obtained from Omaha, St. 
Joseph, Kansas City and Denver. The cost of provisions is 
somewhat higher than in Denver, though with an increase of 
consumption the prices would be practically the same. 

SHOSHONE PROJECT. 

Works Proposed. — The storage reservoir will be on Sho- 
shone River, in Township 52 North, Range 103 West. It 
includes the lower portions of the North and South Forks of 
the river. Capacity at proposed flow line, 230 feet above 
bottom of river channel, 456,0000 acre feet. Area of flooded 
area, 6,600 acres. Mean depth, 69 feet. 

The storage dam is located at the head of Shoshone 
Canon, in Section 7, Township 52 North, Range 102 West. 
It will be seventy-five feet long at bottom of river channel, 
200 feet long on top, and about 300 feet in height above its 



58 The Statu of Wyoming. 

foundation, which is about sixty feet below the bottom of the 
river channel. It will be an arched dam of concrete. Waste- 
way will be 250 feet in length and connecting with a tunnel 
through the granite wall, which will discharge the surplus 
water into the river bed below the dam. 

There will be two outlet conduits, leaving the reservoir 
at ten feet and sixty feet, respectively, above the bed of the 
river. The one leaving the reservoir at the elevation ten 
feet will be a tunnel ten feet by ten feet in cross-section, 500 
feet in length, and will discharge the water, which will be 
controlled by suitable gates, into the river channel below the 
dam, from which point it will flow down the channel to the 
lower diversion point near Corbett, a distance of sixteen 
miles. The upper conduit will be divided into four sections. 
Section 1 will be six feet by seven feet through granite, 3,230 
feet in length, grade 2.64 feet per mile, capacity 500 second 
feet. Section 2 will be a tunnel through granite and sand- 
stone, 2,593 f eet m length, and will have the same cross- 
section, grade and capacity as Section 1. Between Sections 
1 and 2 suitable waste gates will be placed. The water in 
Sections 1 and 2 will be under pressure from the reservoir. 
Section 3 will be an open cut, fourteen feet wide on the bot- 
tom ; side slopes, i l / 2 to 1; depth of water, 7 feet; grade, 
2. 1 12 feet per mile; length, 3,000 feet; capacity, 500 second 
feet. Section 4 will be a tunnel through limestone, with con- 
crete lining; cross-section, 8 feet by 8 feet; grade, 7.92 feet 
per mile ; length, 8,660 feet ; capacity, 500 second feet. At 
the end of this section the conduit reaches the upper portion 
of the irrigable land. 

Canal Lines. — High line starts from lower end of outlet 
tunnel. Bottom width, 26 feet ; depth, 6 feet ; side slopes, 
1 on 2 ; grade, 1.056 feet per mile; capacity, 500 second feet; 
length, 22 miles. Will irrigate 20,000 acres. At Eaglenest 
Creek it will be divided into three main laterals for irrigation 
of 20,000 acres north of Ralston. Low line canal heads in 
Shoshone River, sixteen miles below the damsite, or near 
Corbett station. A low diversion dam will be built. The 
first section will be a tunnel three and one-half miles long 
through sandstone and shale and will be lined. Water sec- 
tion will be 10 feet by 10 feet; grade, 6 feet per mile; ca- 
pacity, 1,000 second feet. Below the tunnel the water will 
enter the main low-line canal, which Will extend to Frannie, a 
distance of forty-two miles, irrigating 80,000 acres. For ten 
miles the section of the canal will be: Bottom width, 38 feet; 
depth, 7.5 feet; side slopes, 1 on 2 ; grade, 1.056 feet per mile; 
capacity, 1,000 second feet. Below this point the canal will 
be gradually decreased in size. 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 59 

The area of the reclaimed land will be about 120,000 
acres. Cost per acre, $30. Practically all this land is public 
domain, and is, therefore, subject to the conditions of the 
reclamation act. The farm unit has not been determined. 

Roads. — A wagon road from the lower end of Shoshone 
Canon to the damsite, a distance of four miles, is being built. 
The road will be extended around the reservoir to replace the 
portion of the road between Cody and Yellowstone Park, 
which will be covered by the reservoir. 

Location. — Big Horn County, Wyo. Latitude, from 44 
30' to 45 c o' X.; longitude, from 108 30' to 109 20' W. 
Townships 52 to 58 Xorth, Ranges 96 to 103 West, 6th Prin- 
cipal Meridian. The town of Cody is in the upper portion of 
this tract. The Cody branch of the Burlington railroad trav- 
erses the tract. Distances by rail from Cody via Burlington 
railroad : 

To Omaha, 982 miles. 

To Chicago, 1,461 miles. 

Topography. — Irrigable lands are gentle rolling bench 
lands: elevation, 4,000 to 5.000 feet. The drainage area above 
Cody is 1.480 square miles; above the damsite, 1,380 square 
miles. It includes the eastern slope of the Continental Divide 
in Yellowstone Park; elevation, 10,000 to 12,000 feet. The 
major part of the drainage area is in Yellowstone Park and 
the Yellowstone Forest Reserve. 

Climate. — Rainfall, from 8 to 16 inches. Run-off at Cody 
during 1903 was 1,027,900 feet, or 13 inches. Prevailing direc- 
tion of winds is from the west. Temperature : Maximum, 95 ; 
minimum-, 20; mean, 42°. Humidity, 65 per cent. 

Agricultural Possibilities. — Value of non-irrigated lands, 
$1.25 per acre. Value of irrigated lands, $25 to $75 per acre. 
Types of soil, clay and sandy. Crops, alfalfa (two crops), 
oats, wheat, barley and vegetables. Range lands, ample. 
Fuel, coal, widely distributed. 

Time of Completion. — Owing to the magnitude of the 
project, the time for its completion cannot be definitely 
stated. It is expected, however, that about 40,000 acres will 
be under ditch in about two years from the time of beginning 
construction. 

THE RECLAMATION ACT. 

The following is the law under which lands under the 
foregoing projects may be located: 

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 



60 The State of Wyoming. 

That all moneys received from the sale and disposal of public 
lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mon- 
tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Okla- 
homa, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyo- 
ming, beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1901, 
including the surplus of fees and commissions in excess of 
allowances to registers and receivers, and excepting the five 
per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands in the 
above states set aside by law for educational and other pur- 
poses, shall be, and the same are hereby, reserved, set aside 
and appropriated as a special fund in the Treasury to be 
known as the 'reclamation fund,' to be used in the examina- 
tion and survey for and the construction and maintenance of 
irrigation works for the storage, diversion and development 
of waters for the reclamation of arid and semi-arid lands in 
the said states and territories, and for the payment of all other 
expenditures provided for in this act. * * * * 

"Sec. 2. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby au- 
thorized and directed to make examinations and surveys for, 
and to locate and construct, as herein provided, irrigation 
works for the storage, diversion and development of waters, 
including artesian wells, and to report to Congress at the be- 
ginning of each regular session as to the results of such ex- 
aminations and surveys, giving estimates of cost of all con- 
templated works, the quantity and location of the lands which 
can be irrigated therefrom, and all facts relative to the prac- 
ticability of each irrigation project; also the cost of works in 
process of construction as well as of those which have been 
completed. 

"Sec. 3. That the Secretary of the Interior shall, before 
giving the public notice provided for in Section 4 of this act, 
withdraw from public entry the lands required for any irriga- 
tion works contemplated under the provisions of this act, and 
shall restore to public entry any of the lands so withdrawn 
when, in his judgment, such lands are not required for the 
purposes of this act ; and the Secretary of the Interior is 
hereby authorized, at or immediately prior to the time of 
beginning the surveys for any contemplated irrigation works, 
to withdraw from entry, except under the homestead laws, any 
public lands believed to be susceptible of irrigation from said 
works : Provided, That all lands entered and entries made 
under the homestead laws within areas so withdrawn during 
such withdrawal shall be subject to all the provisions, limita- 
tions, charges, terms and conditions of this act : that said 
surveys shall be prosecuted diligently to completion, and upon 
the completion thereof, and of the necessary maps, plans and 
estimates of cost, the Secretarv of the Interior shall determine 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 6i 

whether or not said project is practicable and advisable, and 
if determined to be impracticable or unadvisable he shall 
thereupon restore said lands to entry ; that public lands which 
it is proposed to irrigate by means of any contemplated works 
shall be subject to entry only under the provisions of the 
homestead laws in tracts of not less than forty nor more than 
one hundred and sixty acres, and shall be subject to the lim- 
itations, charges, terms and conditions herein provided : Pro- 
vided, That the commutation provisions of the homestead 
laws shall not apply to entries made under this act. 

"Sec. 4. That upon the determination by the Secretary 
of the Interior that any irrigation project is practicable, he 
may cause to be let contracts for the construction of the same, 
in such portions or sections as it may be practicable to con- 
struct and complete as parts of the whole project, providing 
the necessary funds for such portions or sections are available 
in the reclamation fund, and thereupon he shall give public 
notice of the lands irrigable under such project, and limit of 
area per entry, which limit shall represent the acreage which, 
in the opinion of the Secretary, may be reasonably required for 
the support of a family upon the lands in question ; also of 
the charges which shall be made per acre upon the said 
entries, and upon lands in private ownership which may be 
irrigated by the waters of the said irrigation project, and the 
number of annual installments, not exceeding ten, in which 
such charges shall be paid and the time when such payments 
shall commence. The said charges shall be determinted with 
a view of returning to the reclamation fund the estimated cost 
of construction of the project, and shall be apportioned equit- 
ably : Provided, That in all construction work eight hours 
shall constitute a day's work, and no Mongolian labor shall 
be employed thereon. 

"Sec. 5. That the entryman upon lands to be irrigated 
by such works shall, in addition to compliance with the home- 
stead laws, reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area 
of his entry for agricultural purposes, and before receiving 
patent for the lands covered by his entry shall pay to the 
government the charges apportioned against such tract, as 
provided in Section 4. No right to the use of water for land 
in private ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding one- 
hundred and sixty acres to any one land owner, and no such 
sale shall be made to any land owner unless he be an actual 
bona fide resident on such land, or occupant thereof residing 
in the neighborhood of said land, and no such right shall per- 
manently attach until all payments therefor are made. * * * 

"Sec. 6. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby au- 
thorized and directed to use the reclamation fund for the 



62 The State of Wyoming. 

operation and maintenance of all reservoirs and irrigation 
works constructed under the provisions of this act : Provided, 
That when the payments required by this act are made for 
the major portion of the lands irrigated from the waters of 
any of the works herein provided for, then the management 
and operation of such irrigation works shall pass to the owners 
of the lands irrigated thereby, to be maintained at their ex- 
pense under such form of organization and under such rules 
and regulations as may be acceptable to the Secretary of the 
Interior : Provided, That the title to and the management 
and operation of the reservoirs and the works necessary for 
their protection and operation shall remain in the government 
until otherwise provided by Congress." 

Other sections of the law, not necessary to quote herein, 
provide for the administration of the act by the Secretary 
of the Interior. This act was approved by the President June 
17, 1902. 

WIND RIVER RESERVATION, 

By act of Congress of March 3, 1905, the Shoshone or 
Wind River Indian Reservation will be opened to the public, 
June 15, 1906, for settlement under the homestead act. This 
reservation comprises some of the most fertile land in the 
entire nation. It lies at an elevation of from 4,300 to more 
than 6,000 feet. Probably 250,000 acres of the tract is good 
farming land and the remainder is grazing land. There is 
some timber in the mountainous portions, and there is be- 
lieved to be coal and minerals of various kinds within its 
limits. 

Two great railroad lines are heading toward this reser- 
vation, and promise to be ready to carry passengers and 
freight to that section at the time of the opening. 

Brief but specific information relative to this opening has 
recently been given to the public by Hon. W. A. Richards, 
Commissioner of the General Land Office, as follows : 

"The ceded portion of said reservation, which embraces 
the land lying north and east of the Big Wind River, is to be 
disposed of under the provisions of the homestead, townsite, 
coal and mineral land laws of the United States, and will be 
opened to settlement and entry on June 15, 1906, and that by 
proclamation the President shall prescribe the manner in which 
such lands may be settled upon, occupied and entered by per- 
sons entitled to make entry thereof, and no person will be per- 
mitted to settle upon, occupy and enter said land, except as 
prescribed in said proclamation, until after the expiration of 
sixty days from the date when the same is open to settlement 
and entry. 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 63 

"It is also provided that the rights of ex-soldiers and 
sailors under Sections 2304-2305, R. S., shall not be abridged. 

"All persons making homestead entries in said reservation 
within two years after the opening are required to pay $1.50 
per acre, but in homestead entries made thereafter, the sum 
of $1.25 is to be paid. Fifty cents per acre is to be paid at the 
time of making the entry, and twenty-five cents per acre an- 
nually thereafter until the price provided for has been fully 
paid. Lands entered under the townsite, coal and mineral 
land laws must be paid for in amount and manner as provided 
by said laws. 

"Notices of location of mineral entries are required to be 
tiled in the local land offices of the district in which the land 
is situated, and unless entry and payment shall be made 
within three years from the date of location, all rights there- 
under shall cease. 

"In case any entryman fails to make any of the payments 
for the land, as provided, within the time stated, all rights 
covered by such entries shall cease, and payments which have 
theretofore been made will be forfeited and the entry held 
for cancellation. 

"Commutation of homestead entry may be made of 
these lands under Section 2301, R. S., but the parties will be 
required to pay the price for the land, as fixed by the act. 

"After the expiration of five years from the date of the 
opening, all the lands then undisposed of, except mineral and 
coal lands, shall be sold to the highest bidder for cash at not 
less than $1 per acre, and any of such lands remaining unsold 
after eight years from the time of opening may be sold to the 
highest bidder for cash, without regard to the minimum limit 
of price. 

"The ceded portion embraces about two-thirds of the land 
within said reservation and contains approximately 1,150,000 
acres." 

In the cultivation of the lands upon this tract of land 
irrigation will be required. The government, through the 
reclamation service, has made a preliminary survey with a 
view of applying to it the provisions of the irrigation act, but 
nothing definite can be stated in regard to the action of the 
government at this time. 

It is believed that this reservation opening will bring to 
Wyoming many thousands of people, and that they will be 
delighted with the prospect presented and remain to become 
citizens of the state. 

Those who desire further information relative to agri- 
culture, horticulture, etc., in this particular region are referred 
to the excellent articles herein on those subjects. 



6 4 



The State; of Wyoming. 



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Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 



65 



The public lands in Wyoming consist chiefly of grazing, 
timber and agricultural lands, though there are large areas of 
coal, oil and mineral lands. 

The agricultural lands are those lying contiguous to the 
rivers and streams, and are vast in extent, but crops cannot 
be successfully raised without irrigation. By the application 
of water the soil is rendered very productive and is not sur- 
passed by the states of the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys. 

The laws under which title to government land may be 
acquired by citizens of the United States are the homestead 
law. the desert land law, the timber and stone law and the 
coal and mineral law. 

Homestead Law. — The homestead law secures to qualified 
persons the right to settle upon, enter and acquire title to not 
exceeding one quarter section (one hundred and sixty acres) 
of public land, by establishing and maintaining residence 
thereon and improving and cultivating the land for the period 
of five years. A homestead entryman must be the head of a 
family or a person who has arrived at the age of twenty-one 
years. He must be a citizen of the United States, or one who 
has declared his intention to become such, as required by the 
naturalization laws. The act of. March 3, 1891, attaches the 
condition that he must not be the proprietor of more than one 
hundred and sixty acres of land in any state or territory. 

Where a wife has been divorced from her husband, or de- 
serted, so that she is dependent upon her own resources for 
support, she can make a homestead entry as the head of a 
family or femme sole. 

A single woman who makes a homestead entry and mar- 
ries before making proof does not forfeit her right, provided 
she does not abandon her residence on the land. 

Parties desiring to commute their homestead entries to 
cash are required to make proof of settlement and of residence 
on and cultivation of the land for a period of fourteen months 
from the date of entry. 

The following is a table of fees and commissions charged 
in the mountain states under the homestead act : 





Class of 
Lands 


COMMISSIONS 


Fees, 

Payable when 

entry is 

made 




Acres 


Payable when 

entry is 

made 


Payable when 

certificate 

issues 


Total 
sum 


160 

80 
40 
160 
80 
40 


$2.50* 
2.50* 
2.50* 
1.25+ 
1.25+ 
1.25+ 


$12.00 
6.00 
3.00 
6.00 
3.00 
1.50 


$12.00 
6.00 
3.00 
6,00 
3.00 
1.50 


$10.00 
5.00 
5.00 
10.00 
5.00 
5.00 


$34.00 
17.00 
11.00 
22.00 
11.00 
8.00 



^Inside Union Pacific Land Grant. 



tOutside Union Pacific Land Grant. 



66 The State of Wyoming. 

Desert Lands. — All lands, exclusive of timber lands and 
mineral lands, which will not, without artificial irrigation, 
produce some agricultural crop, are deemed desert lands, and 
are subject to entry under the desert land law. The party 
making entry is required at the time of filing his declaration 
to file also a map of the land, which will exhibit a plan show- 
ing the mode of contemplated irrigation, which plan shall be 
sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim said land and 
prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural crops. No person is 
permitted to enter more than 320 acres of land in the aggre- 
gate under all the land laws of the United States, mineral 
lands excepted. 

The right to make desert land entries is restricted to resi- 
dent citizens of the state in which the land sought is located. 
The entryman must expend at least three dollars per acre, 
one dollar per acre during each year for three years, and 
must file proof thereof during each year, such proof to consist 
of his affidavit, corroborated by the affidavits of two or more 
witnesses, showing that the full sum of one dollar per acre 
has been expended during such year and the manner in which 
expended, and at the expiration of three years a map or plan 
showing the character and extent of the improvements. The 
party may make his final entry and receive his patent at any 
time prior to the expiration of three years by making required 
proof of reclamation and of the expenditure of the aggregate 
amount of three dollars per acre, and of the cultivation of 
one-eighth of the land. Persons making desert land entries 
must acquire clear right to the use of sufficient water for the 
purpose of irrigating the whole of the land, and of keeping it 
permanently irrigated. Persons making desert land entries 
before they have secured a water right do so at their own risk. 
The price of land sought to be entered under the provisions 
of the desert land act is $1.25 per acre, without regard to the 
situation of the lands in regard to railroad grants. When 
proof of the character of the land has been made the applicant 
will pay the Receiver twenty-five cents per acre for the land 
applied for. At the time of making final proof the payment of 
one dollar per acre is required. 

Timber and Stone Entries. — The act of June 3, 1878, pro- 
vides that surveyed lands in the public land states, valuable 
chiefly for timber and stone, unfit for cultivation, and conse- 
quently unfit for disposal under the homestead and desert land 
laws, may be purchased by individuals and by associations at 
the minimum price of $2.50 per acre. A party making appli- 
cation to purchase a tract of this character is required to make 
affidavit that he is a citizen of the United States by birth or 



Public Lands and Irrigation Projects. 67 

naturalization, or that he has declared his intention to become 
a citizen under the naturalization laws. The quantity of land 
which may be acquired lawfully under said act by any one 
person or association is limited to not exceeding 160 acres, 
which must be in one body. 

Coal. — A qualified person has the right to enter by legal 
subdivision any quantity of coal lands in the United States, 
not otherwise appropriated or reserved by competent author- 
ity, not exceeding 160 acres to such individual person or 320 
acres to an association, upon payment to the government of 
not less than $10 per acre for such lands, where the same shall 
be situated more than fifteen miles from any completed rail- 
road, and not less than $20 per acre for such lands as shall be 
within fifteen miles of such road. 

Mines and Mineral Lands. — Lands valuable for deposits 
of mineral, such as fire and pottery clay, marble, asphalt, soda, 
sulphur, diamonds, or of the precious common metals, are 
subject to sale under the mining laws. A location must be 
first duly made and recorded, and certain sums must be an- 
nually expended. Five hundred dollars' worth of labor and 
improvements must be laid out on each claim before patent 
can be applied for. The rules and regulations and methods 
of procedure are too extensive and complex to be reviewed at 
length in the compass of this brief article. Mining locations 
defeat all railroad and state selections, if the mines and min- 
erals were known to exist, or were discovered prior to the 
time the road and state claims took effect. Homestead, desert 
and timber and stone entries cannot embrace known mineral 
lands, unless it be first shown that the lands sought to be 
entered are more valuable for agricultural purposes than for 
the mineral they contain. 

The United States land offices for the several districts in 
Wyoming are as follows : Albany, Carbon and Laramie 
Counties, and a few townships in Southeastern Sweetwater 
and Southeastern Fremont County, at Cheyenne, Wyo. ; 
Sweetwater and L T inta Counties, at Evanston, Wyo. ; Fre- 
mont and Big Horn Counties, at Lander; Johnson, Sheridan 
and a small portion of Eastern Big Horn County, at Buffalo; 
Crook and Weston, at Sundance ; Converse and Natrona, 
at Douglas. 



68 The; State of Wyoming. 



State Lands. 



There are two kinds of lands — state and government. 

The non-mineral land laws, which have been of the great- 
est benefit to the arid west, are the pre-emption, homestead, 
desert land and Carey act. The pre-emption act has been 
repealed. 

Under the homestead act, settlement on a tract of one 
hundred and sixty acres, or less, is required for five, years, 
when title passes to the settler without any money considera- 
tion, or after fourteen months' actual settlement the title 
may be obtained by the payment of $1.25 per acre. 

Under the desert land act, three hundred and twenty acres 
may be acquired within three years by the expenditure of $3 
per acre in improvements, water rights and cultivation, and 
the payment to the government of $1.25 per acre. 

Other acts grant to the states for aid in the support of 
public schools. Sections 16 and 36 in each township. This 
grant amounts in Wyoming to 3,001,905 acres. There is also 
given the state five per cent of all money received by the gen- 
eral government for the sale of its lands in Wyoming. The 
interest on this fund is used in aid of the support of the schools. 

There have also been granted to Wyoming 663,080 acres 
for aid in support of her several institutions, such as the Uni- 
versity, Agricultural College, Hospital, Insane Asylum, Pen- 
itentiary, Soldiers' Home, etc. 

The rental of these lands, which are mostly pasture lands, 
bringing an average rental of three cents per acre, and the in- 
terest upon the fund realized from their sale, at not less than 
$10 per acre, is used in aid of the maintenance of these insti- 
tutions. 

STATE LANDS — HOW THEY MAY BE ACQUIRED. 

There are two classes of state lands : 

First — Those donated to the state for various public pur- 
poses, and over which the state has absolute control. 

Second — Those known as "arid lands," whose donation to 
the state is conditional upon their reclamation. 

Under the provisions of the constitution and statutes, the 
State Boards of Land Commissioners, consisting of the Gov- 
ernor, Secretary of State, State Treasurer and Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, have the direction, control, disposition 
and care of all lands granted to the state. 



State Lands. 69 

First — Those donated to the state for various public pur- 
poses, and over which the state has absolute control. 

May Be Sold. — The act of admission provides that school 
lands, including the grant for the use of the Agricultural 
College, shall be sold for not less than $10 per acre. The 
constitution provides further that lands heretofore and here- 
after acquired shall be sold for not less than $10 per acre, and 
that such lands shall be disposed of at public auction. 

May Be Leased. — The State Boards of Land Commission- 
ers lease any legal subdivision of the lands of the state at an 
annual rental not less than five per cent of the valuation 
thereof, fixed by the board, conditioned upon the payment of 
the rent annually and in advance, and for periods of not more 
than five years. Y\ nen any lease expires by limitation the 
lessee may, with the permission of the board, renew the same 
as follows : At any time within ninety days next preceding 
the expiration of the lease the lessee or his assigns shall 
notify the Commissioner of Public Lands of his or their de- 
sire to renew the lease. If the lessee and the board be agreed 
as to the valuation of the land, a new lease shall be issued, 
bearing even date with the expiration of the old one, and upon 
like conditions. 

The power given to the board to refuse to renew a lease 
or to sell state lands at the expiration of a lease, or again to 
lease to other parties than the original lessee, shall not apply, 
whenever the original lessee of state land or his assigns shall 
have, during the period of his lease, or prior thereto, reclaimed 
the same by irrigation, and shall have provided suitable 
ditches for its full and complete reclamation, and shall have 
secured an adequate and perpetual water supply for said land, 
and shall have continuously cultivated and irrigated one- 
fourth thereof, or shall have, during the term of his lease, 
constructed upon any section of state land or legal subdivision 
thereof, a well, or reservoir, for the purpose of watering live 
stock, of the value of $200, then, in such cases, the said orig- 
inal lessee, or his assigns, shall have a preferred right to renew 
such lease for a term of five years, which renewal may be 
repeated for the same period of five years thereafter, and may 
again be repeated for a period of ten years thereafter, making a 
total period not to exceed twenty years ; Provided, That each 
of said renewals shall be dependent upon the continuous irriga- 
tion and cultivation of said land or upon the maintenance and 
use of said well or reservoir; and, Provided, further, That 
the said lands, at each renewal period, may be appraised by 
the board having jurisdiction thereof ; said appraisement to be 
made irrespective of any irrigation works or improvements 
placed thereon by the lessee. 



70 The State of Wyoming. 

The lessee of state lands is prohibited, in all cases, from 
cutting or using more of the timber thereon than shall be 
necessary for the improvement of such lands, or for fuel for 
use of the family of the lessee, and from the cutting and haul- 
ing of timber from leased state lands to saw mills. 

Any lease of state lands procured by fraud, deceit or mis- 
representation may be canceled by the board upon proper 
proof thereof. 

The necessary blanks and information will be supplied any 
person desiring to lease state lands, upon application to Rob- 
ert P. Fuller, Commissioner of Public Lands, Cheyenne, Wyo. 

Second — Those known as arid lands whose donation to 
the state is conditional upon their reclamation. 

The act of Congress approved August 18, 1894, donated to 
the State of Wyoming, conditional upon its reclamation, one 
million acres of arid land. The State of Wyoming accepted 
the conditions of the grant, and by Chapter 15, Title 9, of 
Division 1 of the Revised Statutes, provided for its reclama- 
tion, occupation and disposal. The general provisions of this 
law are as follows : 

Request and Proposal. — Any person, or company of per- 
sons, having constructed or desiring to construct ditches, 
canals or other irrigation works to reclaim lands under the 
provisions of this act, shall file with the State Board of Land 
Commissioners a request for the selection of the land to be 
reclaimed, and accompany this request with a proposal to con- 
struct the ditch, canal or other irrigation works necessary for 
the complete reclamation of the land asked to be selected, and 
shall make clear to the board their financial ability to carry out 
the proposed undertaking. 

Guaranty. — A certified check for such sum as may be de- 
termined by the board shall accompany each request and 
proposal as a guarantee that a contract with the state will be 
entered into according to its terms. 

Maps and Field Notes. — An accurate survey must be 
made and maps and field notes furnished the board, with a 
certified copy of a permit from the State Engineer to appro- 
priate water for the reclamation of the land described. 

Terms of Contract — With State for Construction — With 
Settler for Land and Water — Bond. — Upon the withdrawal 
of the land by the Department of the Interior, it shall be the 
duty of the board to enter into a contract with the parties sub- 
mitting the proposal, which contract shall contain complete 
specifications of the location, dimensions, character and esti- 



State Lands. 71 

mated cost of the proposed ditch, canal or other irrigation 
works ; the price per acre and terms at which such works and 
perpetual water rights shall be sold to settlers ; provided, that 
such price and terms for irrigation works and water rights 
shall in all cases be reasonable and just. This contract shall 
not be entered into on the part of the state until a satisfactory 
bond is filed by the proposed contractor for irrigation works, 
which bond shall be in a penal sum equal to five per cent of 
the estimated cost of the works. 

Time Allowed for Construction. — Xo contract shall be 
made by the board which requires a greater time than five 
years for the construction of the works, and all contracts shall 
state that the work shall begin within six months from the 
date of contract; that at least one-tenth of the construction 
work shall be completed within two years from the date of 
said contract, and that construction shall be prosecuted dili- 
gently and continuously to completion. Upon failure of con- 
tractors to complete ditch or canal under contract, the land 
board may sell any such incomplete works at auction. 

HOW TO ACQUIRE A HOMESTEAD UNDER THE 
ARID LAND ACT. 

Any citizen of the United States or any person having 
declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States 
(excepting married women not the heads of families), over the 
age of twenty-one years, may make application for a certificate 
of location upon any of the segregated lands in an amount not 
to exceed one hundred and sixty acres. 

The prospective settler must first secure a contract from 
the irrigation company for a water right for the land upon 
which he desires to locate. The application and a duplicate 
copy of the water contract must be filed with the Commissioner 
of Public Lands within thirty days of the date of issuing said 
water contract, and be accompanied by a payment of twenty- 
five cents per acre in partial payment of the land, and a fee of 
$1 for filing the application. If the application is not allowed, 
the payment of twenty-five cents per acre is returned. 

The application must be sworn to before a United States 
Commissioner or other officer authorized to administer oaths. 

During the first year the settler must reclaim and irrigate 
not less than one-sixteenth of the land applied for, and within 
two years must irrigate and cultivate not less than one-eighth 
of the land. Within three years the settler must make final 
proof, showing that he has lived upon the land with his family, 
if any, for not less than a period of six months, immediately 
prior to date of application for patent, and showing reclama- 



72 The State oe Wyoming. 

tion and cultivation of not less than one-eighth of the land, 
and such further details in regard to crops raised as called 
for in the final proof blank. 

The reclamation can be completed and land patented in 
the first year. 

Application for patent must be accompanied by the final 
payment of twenty-five cents per acre on the land and state 
fees of $2 for filing application and issuing the patent. 

Patents — Water Rights Appurtenant. — The water rights 
to all lands acquired under the provisions of this act shall 
attach to and become appurtenant to the land as soon as title 
passes from the United States to the state. 

Fees. — For filing each application, $i ; for filing each final 
proof, $i ; for issuing each patent, $i ; for making certified 
copies of papers or records, the same fee as provided for to be 
charged by the Secretary of State for like services. The money 
collected for fees shall be paid to the Treasurer of the state, 
and by him credited to the fund created by virtue of this act. 



The moneys received by the state for the lands at fifty 
cents per acre create a fund for the reclamation of other lands 
by the state itself. 

This act is now proving to be the most beneficial to this 
state of any of the land acts, and probably more so to this than 
to any other state, for the reasons : 

First — This state of all the arid states has the best irriga- 
tion laws for all kinds of irrigation projects, and especially for 
those under the Carey act. 

Second — Because the State Land Board has taken special 
and practical interest in furthering the state's interests under 
this act ; and, 

Third — Because the state and national governments are 
behind the act and afford perfect protection for the capital 
invested and to the settler for the title to his land and the per- 
petuity of his water right. There is no possibility of any fake 
scheme whereby the individual investors or the settlers can 
lose. For these reasons and the fact that the soil, climate and 
altitude of Wyoming are especially adapted to the most pro- 
fitable crops as the result of irrigation, this state has accom- 
plished more under this act than has any other of the arid 
states, and the act is accomplishing more for the settlement and 
growth in wealth of the state and the furnishing of homes for 
the poor than any other land act of the general government. 
Homes worth $50 per acre are obtainable for from $10.50 to 
$30.50 per acre, and capital invested is assured a fair profit. 




Grand Canon of North Platte River, Natrona County. 



State Lands. 73 

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. 

Under the arid land act the State of Wyoming has segre- 
gated and contracted for the reclamation of 556,593.39 acres. 

The first segregation for the Cody Canal, by the Shoshone 
Irrigation Company, comprised 26,429.94 acres. This land is 
located near the town of Cody, in Big Horn County. The 
canal takes its water supply from the South Fork of the Sho- 
shone River, and the state has obtained patent from the gov- 
ernment for 19,868.54 acres. Nearly all of this land has been 
filed upon and a considerable portion reclaimed. 

The Burlington and Bench Canals, owned by the Big 
Horn Basin Development Company, Germania and Burling- 
ton. Wyoming, were originally intended to cover 32,429.94 
acres which was segregated. It was found, however, that, on 
account of the greater amount of water available under the 
Oregon Basin Canal, it would be more profitable to furnish 
water from the latter rather than from the proposed Burlington 
Canal from the Grey Bull River. The state has obtained a 
patent under the Bench Canal for 11,261.60 acres, part of 
which is still open for settlement, and has application for pat- 
ent for a portion of the remainder. The balance will be cov- 
ered by the Oregon Basin Canal and will not be open for 
settlement before 1907. 

The Big Horn Basin Colonization Company : 20,599.64 
acres have been segregated under this project and 8,707.64 
acres have been patented to the state. These lands are in the 
main occupied by Mormon colonists and have been generally 
reclaimed, and exhibit a successful development of the agri- 
cultural possibilities of the Big Horn Basin. 

The Lovell Irrigation Company had 11,320.51 acres seg- 
regated and 7,161.43 acres have been patented to the state. 
This, as in the case of the Sidon Canal, is also taken up by 
the Mormon colonists. 

The North Platte Canal and Colonization Company, 
Wyncote, Wyoming, has constructed about thirty miles of 
canal along the North Platte River and has located a number 
of settlers under the completed portion. As this canal occu- 
pied a right of way desired by the Government Pathfinder 
Canal, they have entered into arrangement with the United 
States by which the government will furnish the water for 
14,424.94 acres segregated for their project, and their entire 
tract will be ready for patent to the state in May, 1905, at 
which time they will be authorized to locate settlers upon all 
their lands. Under the part of the canal now completed there 
is room for a number of settlers. 



74 The State of Wyoming. 

The Hanover Canal Company, Worland, Wyoming, has 
10,682.53 acres now segregated. This company will have a 
canal about thirty-five m^es long, taking in a considerable 
amount of land along the east side of the Big Horn River, in 
addition to the amount now segregated. A portion of their 
canal has been constructed and they are ready to furnish 
water to prospective settlers. As the altitude of these lands 
is 4,200 feet, there is no doubt that one of the most prosperous 
colonies in the state will be located near Worland. 

The Big Horn County Irrigation Company, which has re- 
cently assumed the incomplete Big Horn County Canal, has 
16,295.44 acres of land segregated. This company has about 
six miles of canal, twenty feet wide, partly completed, and ex- 
pects to reclaim the land in the vicinity of Basin, the county 
seat of Big Horn County. Their land should be open to set- 
tlement during the season of 1907, although it is possible that 
a part of the lands may be open during 1906. 

One of the earliest applications under the arid land act 
was that of the Uinta Canal No. 2, segregating 12,698.68 acres 
of land along the Union Pacific railroad west and east of 
Granger, in Uinta County, about three miles from the station, 
near the Blacks Fork River. Owing to its proximity to the 
Union Pacific railway, this should be one of the best irrigation 
projects in the west. The company has not fully completed 
its reservoir system, so it is necessary to wait until there is an 
ample supply of water before opening the land for settlement. 

The largest project to be constructed by private capital is 
that of the Oregon Basin Canal Company (413 New York Life 
building, Omaha, Neb., and Cody, Wyo.). This company has 
already segregated 145,384.10 acres, and expects to reclaim in 
excess of 200,000 acres. The project contemplates storing a 
large portion of the flood water of the South Fork of the Sho- 
shone River in what is known as the Oregon Basin, and during 
the irrigation season carrying it upon a vast tract of land be- 
tween Burlington and Cody, Wyo. This company also has 
completed the Sage Creek Canal, covering 784.43 acres, which 
takes the flood waters of Sage Creek. Patent has been applied 
for for this small tract. 

The construction of the main canal will be begun during 
the present season, and the land should be open for settlement 
in 1907. 

The Boulder Lake Canal Company, Boulder, Wyo., has 
segregated 6,120 acres of land in Western Fremont County, 
under a fork of the Green River. The canal has been com- 
pleted and the land is now open for settlement. 



State Lands. 75 

The North Platte and Encampment Canal, Saratoga, has 
segregated 18,121.27 acres of land between Saratoga and En- 
campment, along the North Platte River. The construction of 
the canal has not yet begun, but should be completed in time 
for settlement in 1907. 

The Fort Laramie Canal and Reservoir Company made 
an application for the segregation of nearly 27,000 acres of 
land in Laramie County, but as their plan conflicts with the 
government "Pathfinder" project, it is probable that an ar- 
rangement will be made by which the government canals will 
furnish water for this tract of land. 

The first large canal company in Wyoming was the 
Wheatland Development Company, which acquired, by pur- 
chase, a large body of land in Laramie County and furnished 
water for same by the construction of a canal from the Lar- 
amie River, cutting a tunnel through the Laramie Mountains. 
Owing to the diversion of part of the water of the Laramie 
River, within the State of Colorado, this company found it 
necessary to construct an immense reservoir in Albany County 
to store the flood waters of the Laramie, and now, having an 
excess amount of water, has applied for the segregation of 
about 8,000 acres of land under the Carey land act, and will 
be ready to sell water rights to prospective settlers as soon 
as their application has been approved by the United States 
General Land Office. 

Prospective settlers can secure information in regard to 
these several projects by writing to the companies at the 
addresses given above. 

The arid land act is advantageous for small projects, as 
well as for those requiring investment of large capital. 

The Fisher Canal, covering 320 acres; the Fitzsimmons 
Ditch, covering 160 acres, and the John Scott Ditch, 160 acres, 
have been completing under this provision, and the land under 
the John Scott and Fitzsimmons Ditches patented. 

In a former pamphlet issued by the state, reference was 
made to the Cody & Salisbury segregation, comprising about 
80,000 acres to the north of the North Fork of the Shoshone 
River. This tract of land and the irrigation rights belonging 
thereto have been turned over to the Government Reclamation 
Service and is included in the Shoshone project, mentioned 
elsewhere in this issue. 



j6 The State of Wyoming. 

How to Obtain a Right to Use Water 
in Wyoming. 

CLARENCE T. JOHNSTON, STATE ENGINEER. 



Section 31 of Article 1 of the Constitution of Wyoming 
reads as follows : 

"Sec. 31. Water being essential to industrial prosperity, 
of limited amount, and easy of diversion from its natural chan- 
nels, its control must be in the state, which, in providing for 
its use, shall equally guard all the various interests involved." 

The state has provided a regular procedure whereby any- 
one desiring to make a beneficial use of water may be pro- 
tected from the inception of the work of construction to the 
application of water to the ground and the acquisition of the 
right to use the same. The state has been divided into four 
water divisions, each of which is supervised by a division 
superintendent. These four officers, with the State Engineer, 
constitute the State Board of Control. The divisions are still 
further divided into water districts, where the immediate con- 
trol of the water is supervised by water commissioners under 
instructions from the division superintendents and the Board 
of Control. The control of water still lies in the state, even 
though a right to use the same is granted. This right may be 
compared with a right of way granted by the general govern- 
ment where the beneficiary has the use of lands for certain 
purposes, but for the protection of the public the control re- 
mains in the hands of national authorities. 

To obtain a right to use water, the party proposing to 
apply must first survey his ditch line and determine the lands 
which can be irrigated. He can secure blanks for making the 
application from the State Engineer's office, and when these 
have been filled out and accompanied with maps in duplicate 
showing the necessary information, they can be forwarded, 
with the filing fee of $2, to that office. A receipt is sent the 
applicant and the application is taken up in its regular order. 
If in proper form, and the approval does not seem to be in- 
jurious to others, it is so approved, and is thereafter desig- 
nated as a permit. It is recorded in a special record book and 
given a number. The original map which accompanied the 
application is filed in the office of the State Engineer under 



How to Obtain a Water Right. yy 

this number and the permit is returned, with the duplicate 
map, to the applicant. A letter of transmittal accompanies the 
permit and map, which explains the steps which are then 
necessary on the part of the applicant, if he is to perfect his 
right to use water. Attached to this letter is a stub, which, 
when filled out, makes a notice of completion of the irrigation 
works. The applicant is given a limited time to finish con- 
struction work, and when it has been concluded he tears off 
the stub, fills in the blank spaces and sends the notice to the 
State Engineer's office. The State Engineer notes the comple- 
tion of the works on the records and sends a receipt for the 
notice to the applicant. 

Each division superintendent is furnished with a card 
index, each card of which contains a brief of all the permits 
which have been issued in his division. When a notice of 
completion is received by the State Engineer, the superin- 
tendent is so informed and he indicates the same on the proper 
card. His cards are arranged by streams, so that in visiting 
any locality he can inspect all works for which notices of 
completion have been received and if the work has been done, 
and lands irrigated in accordance with the permit issued by 
the state, he takes proof of the same from the applicant. This 
proof is evidence of the applicant's having complied with the 
terms of his permit. The Board of Control meets twice each 
year: on the second Wednesday in March and the third 
Wednesday of October. Prior to these meetings the super- 
intendents advertise all proof they have taken, and if any 
contests of proof submitted are made, a time and place is set 
for a hearing and further testimony is taken, which, together 
with a tabulation and report of all proceedings, is brought to 
the board meeting by the superintendent. The Board of Con- 
trol considers the testimony given in the proofs and by contest 
procedure, and orders the issuance of final certificates of ap- 
propriation accordingly. These papers grant the use of water 
as long as beneficial application of the same is made and the 
rights of others are not interfered with. The certificate of 
appropriation is first recorded in the office of the Board of 
Control and then sent to the County Clerk of the county 
where the beneficial use of water has been made, where they 
are again recorded. The County Clerk forwards the certificate 
to the appropriator after it has been duly recorded. 

By this procedure the public is notified of the extent of 
the proposed use before work begins, careful plans must be 
made for constructing irrigation works and reclaiming the 
lands lying thereunder, and the date of the priority of right to 
use water is fixed by the filing of the application in the office 



78 The State of Wyoming. 

of the State Engineer. The steps leading to the acquisition of 
a right to use water are in brief as follows : 

i. Survey of ditch or reservoir and irrigable lands. 

2. Preparation of maps and application. 

3. Approval of application by state and issuance of a 
permit. 

4. Prosecution of construction and reclamation of lands. 

5. Notice of completion of construction and the applica- 
tion of water to a beneficial use. 

6. Inspection by division superintendent and the sub- 
mission of proof. 

7. Report of superintendent to board and the preparation 
of the decree. 

8. Issuance of the final certificate of appropriation. 

While the procedure would seem to be complicated, yet 
the appropriator does not have to follow the administrative 
phase of the work. He makes his application properly, builds 
his irrigation works, reclaims the land in accordance with the 
permit and makes proof thereof. Under any system he would 
have to construct the canals or reservoirs and perform the 
labor necessary to bring the lands under irrigation. Before 
he could secure a right to use the water undisturbed he would 
have to make some kind of proof of his having made beneficial 
application of the same. 

It costs at least five dollars per acre to reclaim lands by 
irrigation. When this is accomplished the lands have a 
value of at least twenty dollars per acre. If the stability of 
the water right can be insured at an expenditure of fifty cents 
per acre, no better investment could be made by an irrigator. 
The Wyoming law and administration provides such in- 
surance. 

Presume that it is planned to claim one hundred and 
sixty acres of land, and a ditch four miles in length is to be 
constructed. It is found that a surveyor can be secured to 
make the necessary location, measurements and prepare the 
maps. It requires three days for him to reach the land, make 
the surveys and return. For this he charges thirty dollars. 
He then makes the maps and prepares a portion of the appli- 
cation. For this work he charges an additional fee of ten 
dollars. The application is then completed and is sworn to 
before a notary, who charges fifty cents. It is then mailed, 
with the maps, to the State Engineer, accompanied with the 
filing fee of two dollars. After approval, the permit is re- 
turned to the applicant, when construction can properly be- 
gin. When the irrigation works are finished and the lands 
reclaimed, the division superintendent appears and receives 



Agriculture and Horticulture. 79 

proof thereon. He collects a fee of one dollar and seventy- 
five cents, as required by law. Of this fee, one dollar goes to 
the State Treasurer to reimburse the state for the expense 
incurred in issuing the final certificate of appropriation, and 
seventy-five cents is mailed, with the certificate, to the County 
Clerk to cover the recording fee in that office. The costs 
may be summarized as follows : 

Survey and maps $40.00 

Notary fee 50 

Recording fee, State Engineer's office. . 2.00 

Fee for final certificate 1.00 

Fee for recording in office County Clerk .75 

Total $44.25 

The total cost of securing the right to use water is, there- 
fore, a little less than twenty-eight cents per acre. The in- 
vestment in irrigation works would be at least five dollars per 
acre, so that the rate of insurance is only about 5^2 per cent 
of the cost of construction. As the value of the lands irrigated 
depend almost entirely on the water right, the rate of insur- 
ance would ordinarily not exceed one per cent. 



Agriculture and Horticulture. 

Upon the agriculture of a region must its continued and 
permanent prosperity depend. Poor indeed is any country 
which has no staple form of agricultural industry, and the 
more varied are its farming interests, the greater is the inde- 
pendence, the industrial and financial success of its people. 
The conditions in Wyoming are so varied that it is difficult 
to classify them. As a whole the state is located in the heart 
of the mountain and plateau portion of the arid region. The 
average altitude of our agricultural land is about 6,000 feet 
above the sea. There are extensive and well watered plateaus 
between 7,000 and 8,000 feet which offer especial advantages 
for the kind of agriculture suited to them, and there are prob- 
ably larger areas of irrigable land below 5,000 feet altitude 
than are found in any other portion of the west. The mean 
annual temperature varies from about 40 F. to 50 F., de- 
pending on the altitude and the protection of surrounding 
mountains. The growing season, free from frost, ranges from 
less than eighty days to more than 150 days. The annual 
rainfall may exceed thirty inches on the higher mountain 



80 The State of Wyoming. 

ranges, is seventeen inches to twenty-one inches in the north- 
east corner of the state, and perhaps not more than four 
inches on the dryest interior region known as the Red Desert. 
The average annual precipitation is about twelve inches for 
the farming sections of the state, and its distribution through 
the year is most favorable to the growth of crops, as 40 per 
cent to 50 per cent of the total falls in the spring months, 
which secures the germination of seeds and supplies the early 
growth of plants before irrigation becomes necessary. 

As a whole the soils of the state are wonderfully fertile, 
as they have not been subject to leaching by heavy rainfall 
and contain all the plant food which was in the original rocks 
from which they are formed. Phenomenal yields are obtained 
on these virgin soils, and maintaining their fertility is simply 
a question of farm practice and rotation. It is neither neces- 
sary nor advisable to use expensive commercial fertilizers. 

The health factor in the climate cannot be excelled for 
man. animals and plants. The high quality of Wyoming stock 
and crops has received flattering recognition and tribute at 
every international exposition, and at local, state and national 
fairs. In 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Wyo- 
ming received more grand prizes and gold medals for her 
agricultural crops for her size in population than any other 
state, and at the 1904 International Stock Show at Chicago, 
with a single exception, Wyoming captured every prize for the 
northwest district. 

Development. — There are few who can appreciate the 
newness of the western agriculture and its bearing on our 
development. Farm practices and other human institutions 
which have been worked out through an hundred or a thou- 
sand years in pluvial districts have been brought into arid 
America and made general use of, regardless of the fact that 
they were not suited to conditions of climate, soil and social 
relationships so absolutely different from those in which they 
had become established. Regardless of this fact, our agri- 
culture has been successful from the first, in that it sustains a 
people of continuing and increasing prosperity. Thanks to 
the favoring factors of rich soils and salubrious climate, agri- 
culture has been profitable in spite of lack of information and 
mistakes in methods, crops and laws. 

Our knowledge of so complex a business as agriculture 
is, of necessity, accumulative, and with the simple and slight 
beginning already made and the resulting success, the imme- 
diate future promises vastly more than can be stated or 
realized. 

Our first agriculture was the grazing of stock, and so 
remunerative was the grazing industry that Wyoming be- 




Apple Trees at Careyhurst, Converse County. 



Agriculture and Horticulture;. 8i 

came famous for her grass-fed cattle, her range horses and her 
sheep and wool. With the passing of the open range and the 
establishment of ranches where increased amounts of hay and 
forage can be grown, the stock industry is steadily increasing, 
and there has been rapid improvement in the class of animals 
produced. 

But it is in the cultivation of the soil, both for the pro- 
duction of supplemental stock food and of salable crops, that 
our agriculture has developed most rapidly within the past ten 
years. No other industry has kept pace with this in growth 
and no other class of citizens have so much to show for their 
ten years' labor. Ranchmen are prosperous and are building 
homes worthy the name. With new incite into our farming 
and the new internal improvements which are now under way 
in the state, the present cheap lands under irrigation must 
materially advance in valuation, and new crops and new 
markets insure more rapid improvement in the future. In 
the language of the Secretary of Agriculture, there are no bad 
acres in this state. All are useful for some purpose, and with 
good management our irrigated lands can all be made to pay 
10 per cent or better on a valuation of $100 per acre. The 
next ten years will be marked by unusual activity in reclama- 
tion through irrigation, as well as extension of dry farming, 
which will double and treble both our population and our 
land values. 

Several factors make our farming highly profitable. Some 
of these are, large areas of free public land, good water supply 
which can be cheaply applied to the land, large home market 
at high prices for home-grown products, unexcelled quality 
of both crops and flesh, which demands the best prices wher- 
ever they may be marketed, large yields from virgin arid 
soils and quick returns from crops and stock. 

High Altitude Farming. — Perhaps no parts of the state 
are better adapted to the production of live stock than our ex- 
tensive high plateaus. The rich native grasses reach perfec- 
tion of growth on these higher lands and are more abundant 
and varied than on lower areas where the seasons are longer. 
We find our short season hay is unusually rich in the flesh- 
forming element, nitrogen, and with their quick growth, 
grasses produce less woody fibre and are more digestible 
when fed to live stock than are grasses that take a longer 
time to mature. Because of the short seasons and a general 
lack of understanding about the possibilities of perfecting crops 
under these conditions, the development of general farming 
has been slow, even though at least one of the first large irri- 
gating canals to be constructed was the Pioneer Canal, on 



82 The State of Wyoming. 

the Laramie Plains, covering excellent lands a little more than 
7,000 feet above sea level. In 1891 the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station was established at Laramie, and the possibility 
of remunerative cropping has been fully demonstrated. Crops 
suitable to the season produce large yields, and the problems 
are no more difficult to meet than those in any farming district. 
Alfalfa is now a successful staple crop up to 7,500 feet altitude. 
Early varieties of potatoes and other root crops, oats, barley, 
rye, wheat, spelts, flax, buckwheat, pease and other things 
are certain crops, and mixed farming is becoming established. 
There are still many opportunities to obtain cheap lands in 
these regions, which can be made to pay for themselves with 
a single crop. The station records show average yields of 
wheat, including all varieties tried, of over twenty-five bush- 
els per acres for a period of ten years. Some maximum yields 
of other crops are, potatoes, 522 bushels per acre ; alfalfa, 4% 
tons ; onions, 38,920 pounds ; spelts, 72 bushels ; barley and 
oats, more than 80 bushels, and many other things have given 
large maximum yields and good average returns. Three years' 
experiments to determine the cost and profit of growing wheat 
show an average net profit of more than $10 per acre, where 
done on a small scale at comparatively large expense. 

Stock Feeding. — Within the past year there has been a 
large increase in the business of feeding stock at home to pre- 
pare them for the eastern market. For a number of years 
Wyoming hay-fed steers have been sold for the block, and in 
many instances this beef has gone to consumers as corn-fed. 
At the 1904 International Stock Show, in Chicago, Mr. E. J. 
Bell of Laramie took second prize on a car load of grass-fed 
cattle which were in competition with the best corn-fed beef 
that could be produced in the corn belt of the east. The Ex- 
periment Station introduced the field pea as food for fattening 
lambs, and the business of fitting lambs for market on pease 
promises to become one of the most extensive and best pay- 
ing stock industries of the state. It has been found, also, that 
combination rations of barley and alfalfa, of flax seed and 
alfalfa, with turnips or other roots, produce cheaper gains 
than corn. Stock feeding will be one of the most remunera- 
tive and staple occupations of our farmers. 

Dry Farming. — There are about eight million acres in 
Wyoming which will eventually be brought under irrigation. 
In addition to this area, there will be a large amount of land 
which can be profitably cultivated under systems of dry farm- 
ing. Much has already been done to show the feasibility of 
such farming, especially in those favorable localities which 
present the right conditions of soil and soil moisture. There 



Agriculture and Horticulture;. 83 

are drouth-resistant crops, such as Durum wheats, alfalfa, 
potatoes, buckwheat, barley, rye, etc., which have been proven 
successful with a small amount of rainfall distributed as is 
the Wyoming precipitation. There are many opportunities, 
also, to divert the flood waters of draws and occasional streams 
for winter irrigation to store water in the soil for the produc- 
tion of crops. While such resources are as yet almost un- 
touched, they offer an inviting field to the man seeking cheap 
lands which will pay good interest on the investment. 

Low Altitude Farming. — Little may be said about the 
possibilities of farming under irrigation where the altitude is 
less than 6,000 feet. Some world-renowned crops have been 
authenticated, such as the prize yield of potatoes of 974 bush- 
els and 48 pounds per acre, produced by Mr. Sturgis in John- 
son County; a yield of 132 bushels of oats, produced in Sher- 
idan County ; an average of 8^4 tons of alfalfa hay per acre 
for three years, produced on the Wheatland Experiment Farm. 

Large areas are being reclaimed in Eastern Wyoming and 
in the western and northern portions of the state, where the 
lands lie from 3,500 to 5,000 feet above the sea. Many of these 
lands are so well protected by surrounding ranges of moun- 
tains that crops can be grown which would be too tender for 
other places of like latitude. These lands and water rights 
under the new reclamation projects are cheap and cannot fail 
to greatly increase in value within a short time. 

Horticulture. — The gardens of the state are beginning to 
furnish fresh and unadulterated vegetables for home use. As 
a general indication of what may be done, we need only cite 
the fact that at altitudes of 5,000 feet or less peanuts, sweet 
potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco are successfully produced. 
Melons, pumpkins, squashes and other equally tender things 
grow to perfection at all save the high altitudes, and gardens 
up to 8,000 feet produce a good variety of vegetables of the 
best quality. 

Among fruits the hardier kinds are being grown in all 
parts of the state. On the Laramie Plains Jacob Lund has an 
orchard at an altitude of 7,400 feet which matures Wealthy 
apples each year. Currants, gooseberries, dewberries and 
strawberries can be grown anywhere that there are agricul- 
tural lands. 

The horticultural sections of the state are the low altitude 
lands and the protected valleys of Laramie, Johnson, Sheridan, 
Fremont and Big Horn Counties. In Fremont and Big Horn 
Counties two different ranchmen have ripened peaches with- 
out other protection than that afforded by hills and tree wind- 



84 The State of Wyoming. 

breaks. In these counties a large variety of apples are bearing 
crops of first quality fruit. Among these varieties may be 
mentioned the Northwest Greening, Gano, Ben Davis, Wal- 
bridge, Wolf River, Ganitan, Yellow Transparent, McMahon, 
Wealthy, Duchess, Pewaukee, White Winter Pearmain, 
Gideon and others, as well as a large variety of crabs. Several 
varieties of pears, cherries and plums are yielding good crops. 
The possibilities of home-making where such fruits and the 
more useful shade trees succeed will appeal to many. 

B. C. Buffum. 



Mineral Resources. 



There are few states in the Union that possess mineral 
resources as vast and varied as those of Wyoming. The late 
Prof. Knight of the State University identified 156 of the 
varieties of mineral noted in Dana's System of Mineralogy as 
occurring in Wyoming, and this list is constantly being added 
to as the different formations are opened up and understood. 

Gold, silver, copper and lead all have been known for 
years in almost every mountain range in the state, and the 
work of the past two years has demonstrated beyond a doubt 
that these ores exist in commercial quantities. 

The crying need of these resources is railroad transporta- 
tion, as both the quantity and quality are assured facts, and it 
only remains to get them to market. With the railroads will 
come the up-to-date mining investor, with means and brains 
to make a producing mine out of the long neglected prospects. 

There is not another Rocky Mountain state with greater 
possibilities than Wyoming, or that offers better opportuni- 
ties for mineral investments ; certainly none with so much 
public domain subject to location as mineral land, and, be- 
sides, the precious metals, the wealth of coal, oil and natural 
gas will some day make Wyoming as great a producing and 
manufacturing state as Pennsylvania is today. 

Gold Mining. — Gold mines were first worked at South 
Pass, Fremont County, in 1867, since which date the industry 
has amounted to something each year. The annual production 
has fluctuated from $25,000 to $125,000, the total being esti- 
mated at $4,000,000 produced. 

The placer mines that were rich enough to be worked with 
limited means were worked out long ago. Large tracts of 
placer gold ground, that can only be worked with great 
expenditure of money and the most modern and economical 



Mineral Resources. 85 

devices, remain. These are now owned by large companies, 
who are arranging to work some of them. The quartz veins, 
from which most of the gold produced has been taken, are 
found in all the mountain districts, the most promising of 
which are as follows : South Pass and Atlantic, in Fremont 
County; Seminoe, Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre Moun- 
tains, in Carbon County ; Black Hills, Crook County ; Sho- 
shone Mountains, Big Horn County, and the Laramie Hills. 

Silver and Lead. — These metals are found in small quan- 
tities in all the prominent ranges. Galena is the usual ore 
carrying silver, but at the Esterbrook mine, in Northern 
Albany County, a vein of cerusite or silicious lead carbonate 
has been found. The silver values vary from ten to six hun- 
dred ounces per ton, and the lead from twenty to sixty per 
cent in commercial ores. Shipments have been made from 
camps in Crook, Big Horn, Albany and Laramie Counties. 

Copper. — During the past five years copper in commer- 
cial quantities has been found in nearly all of the thirteen 
counties of the state and development work is being actively 
pushed. The principal ore is usually a chalcopyrite or yellow 
sulphide of copper, associated with the rarer forms. These 
forms are usually covered by a capping of oxidized iron, in 
which the oxidized forms of copper, usually the blue and green 
carbonates, are found. The Grand Encampment Copper Dis- 
trict, in Southern Wyoming, is the leading producer, and 
active camps are established in the Laramie Hills, Shoshone 
Mountains, Owl Mountains, the Wind River Range and the 
Big Horn Mountains. 

Coal.— Coal mining has been the leading mineral industry 
in the state, and will, in all probability, continue in the front 
rank for a time, though copper is fast gaining upon it. It had 
its origin with the advent of the transcontinental railroad, and 
has increased with the development of the state, until today it 
employs 10,000 workmen and has a production of 4,996,828 
tons of coal per annum. 

The kinds of coal vary from a pure lignite to a high grade 
long-flamed bituminous variety. The best grades of coal are 
low in sulphur and ash, and are excellent fuels for locomotives, 
general steam making, domestic purposes and gas production. 

A semi-anthracite was discovered in Johnson County in 
1887. Coking coal has been discovered in two or three locali- 
ties, and seventy-four Beehive coke ovens are operated at 
Cambria, Weston County, having an output of over 20,000 
tons per annum. All coke so far manufactured in this state 
has been made at Cambria, and Wyoming stands eleventh in 
the coke-producing states. 



86 



The State of Wyoming. 



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Mineral Resources. 



87 



The coal fields are so universal that commercial coal is 
known to exist in every county, and, in all but one, coal mines 
are worked. The area of workable coal land is over 20,000 
square miles. The coal veins are numerous. It is not an un- 
common thing to find six or eight workable veins in a single 
field. In thickness the seams vary from a few inches to 75 
feet. The coal mines operated at present have working veins 
varying from four to forty feet. The coal lands are owned, to 
a large extent, by the government, but are subject to location. 
Already three great railroads have penetrated these fields, but 
the industry has only started, and by the close of another 
quarter of a century Wyoming will be producing not less than 
10,000,000 tons of coal per annum. 

AVyoming stands twelfth in the list of coal-producing 
states, and while the amount produced in other states has 
remained stationary in the past two years, the amount pro- 
duced in Wyoming has increased twenty per cent. 

Statement of Coal Output for Year Ending September 30, 1904. 



Owner. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. . 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Union Pac. Coal Co. 
Kemmerer Coal Co. . 
Kemmerer Coal Co. . 
Diamond C. & C. Co. 
Diamond C. & C. Co. 
Diamond C. & C. Co. 
Central C. & C. Co . . 
Central C. & C. Co . . 
Rocky Mt.C. &C. Co 
Kemmerer Coal Co. . 
Kemmerer Coal Co. . 



DISTRICT NO. 


1. 




Tons, 


Men, 


Address. 


Mine. 


1904. 


1904. 


.Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


1 


• 43I.II9 


542 


Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


7 


. 270,929 


328 


.Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


8 


. 301,276 


328 


.Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


9 


• 265,323 


337 


.Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


10 


• 336,946 


275 


Cumberland . . 


.No. 


1 


• 457,689 


423 


Cumberland . . 


.No. 


2 


• 445.332 


34i 


Spring Valley. 


.No. 


1 


• "4.570 


180 


Hanna 


.No. 


1 


. 262,102 


485 


Kemmerer . . . 


.No. 


1 


• 187,312 


265 


Kemmerer . . . 


.No. 


3 


• 50,463 


78 


Diamondville . 


.No. 


1 


• 331.549 


296 


.Diamondville . 


.No. 


2 


• 181,574 


188 


Diamondville . 


.No. 


4 


14,140 


8 


Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


2 


• 189.497 


2,520 


.Rock Springs.. 


.No. 


3 


. 106,309 


1,223 


Almy 


.No. 


5 


7,106 


20 


Willow Creek. 


.No. 


4 


500 


10 


.Willow Creek. 


.No. 


5 


• 2,850 
.3,956,586 


10 


ict No. 1 


7,857 



88 The State of Wyoming. 

district no. 2. 

Tons, Men, 

Owner. Address. 1904. 1904. 

Sheridan Coal Co Sheridan, Wyo. . . . 429,153 500 

Cambria Fuel Co Cambria, Wyo. . . . 396,657 600 

Glenrock Coal Co Glenrock, Wyo. . . . 60,440 135 

Cole Creek Coal Co Big Muddv, Wyo. . 12,087 62 

Stillwell Coal Co Aladdin. Wyo 8,306 30 

Wyoming Coal Mining Co .Monarch, Wyo. . . . 108,599 .... 

Carney Coal Co Carneysville, Wyo. 4,936 .... 

Mined at Thermopolis, Meteetse, Cody, Sher- 
idan, Douglas, Casper, Lander and other 

places not reported (estimated) 20,064 



Totals, District No. 2 1,040,242 1,320 

Totals for state, 1904 4,996,828 9,177 

(From reports of Coal Mine Inspectors, 1904.) 

Natural Gas. — Accompanying the oil fields are numerous 
natural gas horizons. The gas pressure in the oil wells near 
Lander is very great and gas escapes are found at or near most 
of the oil springs. At Brenning Basin, near Douglas, in Con- 
verse County, a flow of gas has been struck in several wells, 
at a depth of 500 feet, and the gas has been piped and used for 
fuel and light in the vicinity, a pressure of 300 pounds per 
square inch having been noted. In the eastern part of Fremont 
County there are two natural gas escapes that are wonders. 
Some prospectors have dug shallow shafts and curbed them 
up with logs ; the shafts are partially filled with water and the 
gas escapes with such violence as to cause the water in them 
to boil as though in a cauldron. There are numerous anti- 
clinals in the state that are not associated with the oil dis- 
tricts, where large flows of gas may be looked for. 

Bituminous Shale. — In the Green River Valley and -at 
Rock Springs there are great bands of rich bituminous shale, 
that equal the shales of Scotland, where an army of men are 
employed and the production is sold for millions of dollars per 
annum. The shales are burnt in a retort, and the products 
saved are gas, oil, tar and ammonium sulphate. The richest 
of these shales assay 45 per cent of volatile matter. 

Volcanic Ash. — In several localities in Wyoming volcanic 
ash has been found. In Albany County, near Laramie, there 
is a bed four feet in depth. It is almost white and is so fine 
that the greater portion of it will pass through a 100-mesh 
sieve. Samples of equal purity have been examined from 
Carbon and Sweetwater Counties. This material is used for 
scouring purposes. It is the base of sapolio, and is also used 
in the geyserite soap. 



Mineral Resources. 89 

Graphite. — Veins of graphite are known at French Creek, 
Plumbago Canon and Halleck Canon, in Albany County, and 
in the Indian Grove Mountains, in Carbon County. The veins 
are large and easily accessible. Analyses of samples from the 
various localities show the carbon contents to vary from 40 
to 60 per cent. So far as known, the ore is of the amorphous 
variety and would make good fire-proof paint, stove polish or 
graphite crucibles. 

Asphaltum. — Along the north side of the Rattlesnake 
Mountains there are several deposits of asphaltum that occur 
below the oil springs. There is also another bed on the Sho- 
shone Reservation, east of Fort Washakie. This has been 
formed about an oil spring and contains several thousand tons. 
The quality is excellent, quite free from foreign matter, and 
it would make a splendid paving material. 

Manganese Ores. — Ores that fall under this class have 
been found in Albany, Crook, Sweetwater and Uinta Counties. 
The development is only slight, since the discoveries are too 
far from railroads to warrant shipments. The ores are good 
grade, and are found in good sized veins. Samples from dif- 
ferent localities vary from 40 to 55 per cent manganese. 

Epsom Salts. — Epsom salts can be found in small quan- 
tities throughout the arid region, but in Wyoming it is found 
in large beds. Near Rock Creek there is a depression contain- 
ing about ninety acres that is covered with this salt. The 
exact depth is not known. In this immediate vicinity there 
are several other beds, the total area of the Epsom Salt Lakes 
being given at 160 acres. The salt is as pure as the com- 
mercial product that sells in our drug stores for ten cents per 
ounce. These deposits are near the railroad, and, if properly 
handled, should enable a company to control the Epsom salt 
trade of America. 

Building Stone. — Building stones of innumerable varieties 
are common throughout the state. The sandstone quarries at 
Rawlins, Carbon County, have a large output, which is shipped 
to Colorado, Utah and Nebraska. The capitol and federal 
buildings at Cheyenne and the State Penitentiary are built of 
this stone. In Laramie County the Iron Mountain quarries 
furnish a beautiful white stone, which is much in favor. Gran- 
ite, sandstone, limestone, quartzites, serpentine marble and 
marble onyx are included in the varieties. 

Gypsum. — This mineral is very common and is found in 
all varieties. Beds varying from 20 to 100 feet in thickness 
are exposed along the mountain ranges. The mineral is very 
pure, and can be utilized for purposes where gypsum is re- 
quired. 



90 The State of Wyoming. 

Plaster of Paris. — The Rocky Mountain Plaster Company 
is operating a plaster mill at Red Buttes. There is room and 
material in sight to supply a thousand mills; in fact, Wyo- 
ming could furnish the world with plaster of paris for a thou- 
sand years, and then not consider the beds exhausted. 

Natural Plaster. — In a few localities deposits of what has 
been called a natural plaster have been found. The mineral 
occurs in superficial deposits, varying from two to six feet in 
depth. It is pulverulent and has a light gray color. When a 
J portion of the water has been driven off, it sets and forms a 
very hard cement. 

Clays. — Pressed and common brick are manufactured in 
the state, but at present there are no other clay industries. 
The clay beds are in abundance and are found in every county 
in the state. Common brick clay, fire clay, tile and terra cotta 
clay and potters' clay are found in thick beds in the sedimentary 
rocks, and not in superficial deposits, as they are usually seen 
in the northern and eastern states. Bentonite, or "soap clay," 
is found in many parts of the state, and shipments have been 
made from the beds at Rock Creek, Albany County, and New- 
castle, Weston County, a number of cars being shipped every 
year from each place. This clay is used as an adulterant, as 
a filler in paper making and for medical purposes, being 
worked up and sold under the name of "Antiphlogistine." 

By analysis this clay contains silica, alumina, iron, mag- 
nesia, sulphur and water, samples having shown over 89 per 
cent of silica and alumina, 1 per cent of iron, 3 per cent mag- 
nesia, i l / 2 per cent lime and sulphur, and 6 per cent water. 
Some of these deposits have no iron, magnesia or sulphur. 
One of them has 3 per cent iron and 3 per cent magnesia. 

Nearly every small town has brick yards in the immediate 
vicinity, as the clays are universal, and some remarkably fine 
commercial brick are made. The clay also makes very fine 
tiling for floors, fireplaces and all kinds of pottery and piping. 

Tin. — Black oxide of tin has been known in veins and as 
stream tin in the Wyoming portion of the Black Hills for 
many years. Tons of stream tin have been mined and sold. 
The veins are slightly developed. There are good veins of tin 
of average richness, and before many years the tin mines of 
Dakota and Wyoming will be worked. Wyoming gained a 
medal at the World's Fair for her exhibit of stream tin. 

Salt. — Near Cambria, Weston County, a plant has been 
built to manufacture salt from Salt Springs, the water of which 
contains 22 per cent salt, and other springs equally fine are 
noted in Johnson and Uinta Counties. In the latter place salt 
is produced for local consumption. 



Mineral Resources. 91 

Quartz. — The Laramie Mountains abound in large veins 
of pure quartz. When ground, it is valuable for glass making. 

Glass Sand. — There are numerous places in the state where 
glass sand is found. The beds near Laramie have been worked 
and proven. 

Mica. — Muscovite mica, the mica of commerce, is very 
plentiful in Wyoming, but there are only a few localities where 
it has been found in "book" of sufficient size to warrant mining. 
In Whalen Canon, some eight or ten miles from Hartville, and 
at Grand Encampment, there are numerous large veins of feld- 
spar containing first-class mica. The former has been worked 
to some extent and a small shipment made. Sheets squaring 
six inches have been taken out near the surface. It is first 
quality in every respect. 

Feldspar. — Orthoclase feldspar occurs in large veins in 
Whalen Canon. It is free from detrimental minerals and is 
suitable for all purposes where orthoclase could be used. 

Sulphur. — Extensive deposits of native sulphur are known 
in Uinta County. The crude brimstone assays from 40 to 70 
per cent of sulphur. There are also very extensive deposits 
above Cody, on the Shoshone River, and on Sunlight Creek, 
north of Cody. 

Bismuth. — Bismuth ore of rare purity has been mined at 
Jelm Mountain, and shipped to the east for reduction. The 
ore is a mixture of carbonates and metallic bismuth, and assays 
from 50 to 65 per cent. 

Sulphate of Aluminum. — This mineral, which is usually 
called native alum, occurs in extensive deposits in Sweetwater 
and Big Horn Counties. It is the principal salt used in manu- 
facturing commercial alums, and for this purpose it should be 
used in connection with the natural soda. 

Fibrous Talc. — A very large vein of fibrous talc exists in 
the range of mountains west of Wheatland. The quality is ex- 
cellent. This mineral is used extensively in the east, and as 
soon as the proper transportation can be furnished the Wyo- 
ming deposits will be worked. 

Decomposed Granite. — Some seven years ago the Union 
Pacific Railroad Company commenced loading decomposed 
granite from a point near Sherman and hauling it out as bal- 
last. It was found to be far superior to any other stone for 
this purpose, but it was also, to some extent, sold for road 
building in cities, a use to which it is well adapted. 



92 The; State of Wyoming. 

Natural Pigments. — Soft iron ores have been used for red 
paint for years. For many years paint mills were operated at 
Rawlins. The Brooklyn bridge was originally painted with 
this paint. More recently the ore has been snipped to other 
states to be ground. The soft hematite ores are in large bodies 
and make a first-class paint. Ochres of various shades are 
known, but the beds have not been worked. Graphite and the 
low grade asbestos that would make an excellent fire-proof 
paint are found in large bodies. 

Semi-Precious Stones. — The semi-precious stones are in 
abundance. Quartz crystals, agates, jaspers, moss-agates, pet- 
rified wood, garnets and beryls are the important ones. The 
moss-agates are the best found in the world. Thus far no 
precious stones have been reported. 

Asbestos. — There are two minerals calls asbestos, one a 
serpentine and the other amphibole. The latter is the true 
asbestos, but the former is sold under the same name and used 
in the same way. The asbestos that is found in Wyoming, 
with the exception of small specimens, belongs to the serpen- 
tine variety and is known as crysolite. Valuable deposits of 
this mineral have been found in Natrona, Albany and Carbon 
Counties. Natrona County has marketed some of the mineral, 
and with a railroad into the central portion of the state, a 
trade in this mineral can readily be built up, as workable de- 
posits are known to exist in the Seminoe Mountains. 

Natural Soda. — Extensive deposits of natural soda are 
known in Carbon, Natrona and Albany Counties. Numerous 
springs contain considerable soda, and at Green River a well 
yields a saturated solution of sodium carbonate, which is 
shipped by the car load. The deposits vary in size from a few 
to one hundred acres, and the soda ranges from a few inches 
to sixteen feet, and possibly more. These deposits are chiefly 
sodium sulphate, but there are carbonates and bi-carbonates 
in some localities. Along the Sweetwater River there are de- 
posits that contain 60 per cent carbonate of soda. The sul- 
phate, when dried and calcined, has been sold in the east for 
glass making, and was used at the Laramie Glass Factory. 
With proper machinery, these great beds of soda can be util- 
ized and would bring in a large revenue. 

The most valuable natural soda discovered in Wyoming 
is what is known as sodium carbonate, or the sal soda of com- 
merce, and can be derived in inexhaustible quantities from 
wells, averaging a depth of two hundred feet, at Green River, 
the county seat of Sweetwater County, and on the line of the 
Union Pacific railroad. Samples of water taken from num- 
erous wells at Green River yield an analysis of 20 per cent of 



[Mineral Resources. 93 

sal soda crystals. Prof. Gilbert C. Wheeler of Chicago, a 
chemist of acknowledged reputation, furnishes the Green 
River Fuel and Oil Company with the following analysis of 
the crude soda of Green River : 

Silica 0.51 

Iron and aluminum 0.42 

Calcium 0.64 

[Magnesium 0.27 

Insoluble residue 0.23 

Water 22 -57 

Anhydrous carbonate of soda 75-36 

100.00 
This is practically more pure than the sal soda of com- 
merce. 

Mineral Springs. — Wyoming is prominent for her mineral 
springs. If we take into our estimate the Yellowstone Park, 
this alone surpasses the rest of the world in the number and 
magnificence of its waters. The mineral springs include hot, 
cold, sulphur, iron and the alkaline earths, and genuine mud 
springs. Notable ones, but by no means the most important, 
are at Death Lake, where they number more than four hun- 
dred. 

A group of some fifty famous hot springs in the Platte 
Valley at Saratoga, in Carbon County, have a temperature of 
130 F., have been extensively improved and have been used 
for twenty years to the great benefit of the invalid visitor. 

At Thermopolis, in the Big Horn Basin, the hot springs 
have an analysis nearly identical with the waters at the Hot 
Springs, Arkansas. These are protected by state law, and are 
under the control of the Board of Charities and Reform. 

A famous hot spring is located two miles west of Fort 
Washakie, on the Shoshone Reservation. This spring is 320 
feet long by 250 feet broad, with an average temperature of 
149 F. The minerals held in solution are medicinal. It is 
held in great repute by both whites and Indians as curative of 
rheumatism and neuralgia. 

In Beaver Canon, north of Sheep Mountain, in Carbon 
County, a sulphur spring, with a temperature of 90 F., is 
found, and near by are cold springs, which contain soda in 
solution, sulphur, iron, sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic 
acid. Another equally large, of sulphur, having a tempera- 
ture of 97 F., exists near Lander, Fremont County, and is 
much sought by the people outside of the state suffering with 
stomach, kidney, liver and bowel disorders. 

A spring with a temperature of 108 F. is located ten 
miles below old Fort Laramie ; another at the head of West 



94 The State of Wyoming. 

Horse Creek, whose temperature is 104 F. ; still another in 
the Platte Canon, at the east end of the Seminoe Mountains, 
having a temperature of 98 F. There are many other springs 
scattered throughout the state, whose analysis suggests that 
they possess valuable medicinal qualities, but, owing to the 
limited number of people, lack of transportation and conse- 
quent small demand for mineral water, it has been impossible 
to develop many of them. 

Limestone. — The unprecedented demand for a pure lime- 
stone, to be used in the sugar beet factories in Colorado, has 
developed a trade at Laramie, Albany County, and Hartville, 
Laramie County, and some thousands of tons are shipped 
annually from these quarries. The limestone is very pure, 
containing 98 per cent calcium carbonate, with very little 
silica, or injurious materials. This same stone exists in many 
other parts of the state, and factories may be assured of a 
constant supply in almost any locality where the beets can 
be grown. 

Iron. — Second to those of no state in the Union are the 
deposits of iron ore. Prospecting along this line has not been 
carried on to any extent, and only iron districts reasonably 
near the railroad have received any attention. The greatest 
deposits are the red hematite, quite free from sulphur and 
phosphorus, and low in silica. The only districts where de- 
velopment or mining has been carried on are Hartville, Raw- 
lins and Seminoe. In these camps are large deposits of soft 
ore, which makes an excellent pigment. The hard ores are 
found beneath the surface in bodies varying from ten to one 
hundred feet in thickness. Rawlins and Hartville or Guernsey 
have furnished thousands of tons of ore to be used by the Salt 
Lake and Denver smelters as a flux for lead and copper smelt- 
ing, and two railroads have been built to the Hartville mines. 
Besides the hematite, there are great deposits of magnetite in 
the Laramie Mountains, and beds of clay ironstone in the 
cretaceous rocks in several localities. Hematite ore has been 
found in Crook, Uinta, Johnson, Fremont, Big Horn, Albany 
and Sheridan Counties. The ores examined are of exceptional 
purity. 

Iron Mines at Guernsey. — The Hartville iron range in Lar- 
amie County, now known throughout the country as containing 
the finest and most extensive deposits of Bessemer steel ores in 
the world, has become a scene of vast operations. Two rail- 
roads, the Burlington and the Colorado and Wyoming, have 
been built into these fields. The mines now being worked 
are owned by the Wyoming Railway and Iron Company and 
held under lease by the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. 



Mineral Resources. 95 

This company has a capital of $25,000,000, and is rapidly en- 
larging its plant at Pueblo, Colo., making it one of the largest 
in the country. The mines are located at Sunrise, in the center 
of the iron belt, where a town has been built, and the work is 
progressing on an extensive scale. 

The ore is mined in great open cuts, where the ore is 
blasted down from the sides and loaded into cars by steam 
shovels, three of which are in active use daily, the cars being 
run into the cuts on side tracks from the main railroad and the 
ore shipped direct from the cuts with as little handling as pos- 
sible. In this manner over 600,000 gross tons of ore have been 
mined, which, at a mine value of $1.50 per ton, gives $900,000 
worth of crude iron ore. A three-compartment shaft, 350 feet 
deep, has been sunk, and three levels run to develop the under- 
lying beds of iron ore hitherto neglected. This department 
will greatly increase the output of the mines and be a perma- 
nent part of the work. 

The known area of the iron belt, which begins at Guernsey, 
on the south, and runs to the head of Whalen Canon, in a 
northeasterly direction, ten miles, with an average width of 
three miles, covers thirty square miles. The greatness of the 
deposit is shown by the fact that, although the Colorado Fuel 
and Iron Company has a lease of seventy-two patented claims, 
the present enormous output is obtained by working only two 
mines. 

The ores are exceptionally pure and of the highest grade 
known, showing from 65 to 68 per cent metallic iron, from 2^ 
to 5 per cent silica, and are practically free from sulphur and 
phosphorus. 

Rawlins Hematite. — Two miles north of Rawlins, Carbon 
County, there is a large deposit of red hematite ore, occurring 
in a metamorphosed sandstone capped with limestone. The 
ore is remarkably pure, and in this vicinity there are several 
other locations which contain similar deposits. 

Analysis of Rawlins Hematite. 

Peroxide of iron 94.22 

Silica 1. 71 

Sulphur 1.24 

Phosphorus Trace 

Titanic acid None 

Water 37 

Ca., Mg. and Mn No estimate 

Seminoe Iron Deposits. — One of the largest deposits of 
iron in Wyoming occurs in the Seminoe Mountains, at the 
foot of Bradley's Peak, Carbon County. Bradley's Peak has 



96 The State of Wyoming. 

been called a mountain of iron ore, containing not less than 
1,500,000 tons, and when development is begun here this local- 
ity will furnish an important part of the iron ore to be smelted 
in Wyoming, as this ore can be mined and loaded in the cars 
for fifteen cents per ton. 

The following comparative analyses show the superiority 
of Wyoming iron ores over other iron ores of repute : 

Seminoe. Pilot Knob. Lake Superior. 

Iron 67.66 59.15 60.69 

Oxygen 28.99 2 5- 2 3 26.01 

Silica 72 13.27 9.82 

Lime 1.23 .21 .57 

Magnesia 68 .14 .24 

Alumina 21 2.19 1.64 

Titanic acid 04 .... .... 

Phosphoric oxide .04 .14 

Sulphur .... .02 

Four-ninths of the phosphoric oxide is the amount of phos- 
phorus. 

GOLD DISTRICTS. 

The South Pass Gold District, Fremont County. 

This district is situated in the south central part of Fre- 
mont County, Wyoming, near the southern end of the Wind 
River range of mountains. 

The completion of the new line of the Burlington road 
to be built up the Big Horn River from Garland to Lander, 
and that of the Chicago and Northwestern to be built from 
Casper to Lander, will bring this district within thirty-five 
miles of a railroad, and it is more than possible that branches 
will be run to the mines and greatly facilitate the operation 
of properties in this section. 

Gold was discovered in this region in 1842, and from that 
time until 1869 efforts were made to work the rich placers 
known to exist there, when the great rush to South Pass oc- 
curred in the latter year, and the placers rich enough to pay 
when worked on a limited crude scale were promptly worked 
out and the miners sought other opportunities in the then new 
fields of Colorado and Montana. 

Geology. — The district may be said to consist of an island 
of metamorphic schists of the Algonkian period lying upon the 
granites of the Archean and with several intrusions of granite 
and dyke rocks in the schists at different localities. The gran- 
ites of this section of the Wind River Range are usually the 
common red feldsitic granite, and here show an occasional 
gray granite island or band, usually of limited extent. 



Mineral Resources. 97 

The schists show for a distance of about thirty miles long, 
from ten to twelve miles wide, the longer axis bearing north- 
easterly and southwesterly, in the same general direction as the 
strike of the schists, and with a general dip to the north, vary- 
ing from 45 degrees to the perpendicular. Around these schists 
are the granites on the northwest and the succeeding sedimen- 
tary formations on the northeast and the tertiary formations 
on the southerly sides. 

Nearly all the rocks of this region, but especially the above 
mentioned schists, show strong evidence of alteration and 
change, in many instances giving an appearance entirely for- 
eign to the character of rock, but an examination with an ordi- 
nary field lens is often sufficient to determine the true character 
at once. This altering material is usually silica, and where the 
rocks are weathered as on an exposed outcrop, a hard quartzose 
character is noted, and these are frequently called "dykes," but 
are simply altered schists and frequently carry gold values. 
Dykes occur in these schists, especially at the old Miner's 
Delight mine at Peabody Hill, where diorite and diabase dykes 
are noted ; at the Mary Ellen Hill, near Atlantic ; at the Carissa 
at South Pass, and along the northwesterly edge of the schist 
in the vicinity of the Little Joe, and at Gold Creek. 

At the Miner's Delight dykes of porphyritic material are 
noted, and these extend to the "Rustler belt," north of Atlantic 
City, where the Mormon Crevice and Poirre estate properties 
have produced very rich ore. 

The Carissa Mine at South Pass. — This property, located 
in 1867, has been a phenomenal producer for many years, and 
development work is being carried on at the present time. The 
development consists of some 2,300 feet of drifting, etc., with 
a shaft 384 feet deep ; following the dip to the vein, equipped 
with hoist and necessary appliances for handling the ore. The 
Carissa ore occurs in quartz lenses, lying in the schist, having 
the same dip and strike as the schist, and these lenses occur at 
irregular intervals. 

Associated with the quartz lenses are bodies of mineralized 
schist carrying pay values in gold, and lying between or near 
the lenses have been found schist ores of very high grade, but 
with the usual intervals of lower grade material in the same 
ore. 

Until recently the development of these ores has been car- 
ried on on the high grade lenses only and the low grade ores 
practically ignored, owing to lack of facilities for treating them 
profitably, but during the past year a cross-cut has been run 
west from the lower or 400 level and the occurrence condition 
of these low grade ores determined. This cross-cut is 180 



98 The State; of Wyoming. 

feet long and cut through a series of quartz lenses and schist 
leads, which were found to vary in value from a trace to $50 
per ton gold, but the free condition remained unchanged as 
in the other parts of the mine. Tests on this work showed 
an average mill value of $6 per ton for the whole length of 
180 feet. 

This is the most important work accomplished in the 
district for many years, as it demonstrates the existence of 
great- bodies of low grade ore capable of treatment on a large 
scale and indicates the course to be pursued in the other mines 
of the district. 

In the upper portion of the Carissa workings the usual 
oxidized ores were found, and these were very rich, as shown 
by the early history of the mine. As development proceeded 
the oxidized ores passed out and the sulphide forms came in, 
being mostly arsenical pyrites, but experience in milling 
these ores has shown the free gold character of the ore still 
pertains, and on the lower level from 60 per cent to 90 per 
cent of the gold values may be saved on the plates and ore 
is frequently met with that shows free gold associated with 
the pyrites, both in the quartz and adjacent schists. The ore 
is being treated in a ten-stamp mill, with amalgamating plates 
and concentrating tables. 

The Dexter Works at Atlantic. — Atlantic City is the 
working headquarters of the Dexter Mining and Development 
Company of Rochester, N. Y. They have recently added to 
their original large holdings and are now operating the Tabor 
Grand, the Bryan, the Dexter Tunnel and Garfield, besides a 
number of smaller works. 

This company holds placer ground on Rock Creek, con- 
sisting of 1,600 acres of patented placer ground, and controls 
the whole bed of Rock Creek to its junction with the Sweet- 
water River, about 3,000 acres of placer claims held by loca- 
tion in the usual manner. The Dexter Company has made 
extensive tests in the bed of this creek by hydraulic elevators 
and other mechanical means for handling the gravel, and will 
put in dredges as the result of these experiments. The water 
for this work is secured from Christina Lake and Rock Creek 
by a system of about twenty-five miles of ditches, flumes, 
etc. An interesting feature of these experiments is the high 
assays obtained from the black sand after the placer gold has 
been taken out, the remaining sand assaying from $400 to 
$800 per ton. 

The Dexter Tunnel is being driven to cross-cut several 
leads, and will cut these different leads at depths varying 
from 217 feet to 395 feet in a total length of 2,800 feet, some 



Mineral Resources. 99 

six leads crossing the line of the tunnel, which has reached 
a length of 1,500 feet and has cut several leads of low grade 
ore. It is being rapidly pushed ahead by air drills and a com- 
plete mechanical plant. 

This company has installed a hoist and shaft house on the 
Rose or Bryan mine, on the line of the Dexter Tunnel, sunk 
a shaft on the vein to connect with the main tunnel, and is 
running drifts on the vein on two levels. 

A new mill has been erected by the Dexter Company at a 
point on Rock Creek just below Atlantic to treat both their 
own and custom ores, extensive experiments having been 
made during the past year to determine the best method of 
treatment. This mill, which started in the spring of this 
year, is of 150-ton capacity, using twenty 1,050-pound stamps, 
with amalgamating plates and having complete cyanide de- 
partment for saving values other than free gold. 

The Miner's Delight mine, abandoned for many years, 
after a production record of over $1,000,000, has cleared its 
title and is now in a fair way to be opened up again on a 
commercial scale. 

The vein is a fissure from four to six feet wide, associated 
with the coarse crystalline porphyry noted above and con- 
tained very rich gold values, but was not developed over 250 
feet in depth, as far as can now be ascertained. 

Lewiston. — At this camp, which was opened up in 1879, 
when the famous Burr mine was discovered, development has 
been slow for the past few years, but this season prospecting 
is again active, and a number of lenses of quartz have been 
found on Strawberry Gulch, which show the characteristic 
free gold condition of the Burr and other famous properties. 

Productions. — The amount of gold produced from twenty- 
eight properties in this district since its discovery is $3,728,000. 
The gold taken from the great placers in the early days of the 
district, before anyone thought of statistics, can only be esti- 
mated and is placed at from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. In this 
locality at the present time there are fifteen properties work- 
ing, employing one hundred men. 

There are fifty meritorious properties in the South Pass 
District that would pay handsomely on the development ex- 
penditure, and it is certain that this district will be heard 
from as a gold producer in the next few years. 

Other Gold Camps. 

The. other gold producing districts in the state are scat- 
tered, and at present are limited in area. Placers are still 
worked on a small scale on the head waters of Snake River, in 



ioo The State oe Wyoming. 

the southern end of Carbon County, and at Welcome Gulch, 
in the eastern edge of Crook County, but the returns are not 
available. In the latter locality lode mining has been active in 
the past year, where the Golden Empire Mining Company has 
had forty men constantly employed doing development work. 
Tunnels aggregating 7,000 feet long have been driven and a 
shaft 200 feet deep sunk to supply ore for a twenty-stamp 
mill. The formations noted are the fine grained schists, gran- 
ites, etc., with some intrusions of trachite and allied rocks, 
overlain with limestone and the succeeding sedimentary for- 
mations. 

Returns of gold working properties are received from the 
Sunlight mines, in Big Horn County; from Kirwin, on the 
head of Wood River, and the South Fork of the Shoshone 
River, in the same county. 

A number of placer works are scattered along the waters 
of the streams in the Wind River and Owl Mountains in Fre- 
mont and Big Horn Counties, Gros Ventre in Uinta County, 
and in the Big Horn Mountains west of Sheridan some prop- 
erties have been worked for gold in the cement deposits on Bald 
Mountains. 

At Centennial, Gold Hill and Jelm Mountain, in Albany 
County, there are a number of properties working for gold 
alone. 

Placers are well known in Carbon, Albany, Big Horn and 
Fremont Counties, and thousands of dollars have been taken 
out in the past. 

COPPER DISTRICTS. 
Grand Encampment District. 

The district popularly known as the "Grand Encampment" 
country lies in the southern part of Carbon County and the 
southwestern corner of Albany County, south of the main line 
of the Union Pacific railroad. 

Mining has been carried on in this region from the earliest 
known period of the state's settlement, but the first permanent 
work was in 1872 in the Kurtz-Chatterton property on Copper 
Creek, west of where Encampment now stands. It was not 
until 1897-8 that the district became prominent by reason of 
some rich gold ores found in Purgatory Gulch, a small trib- 
utary of the South Fork of the Grand Encampment River, and 
the town of Grand Encampment was started. 

The discovery of the Ferris-Haggarty copper mine on the 
North Fork of Battle Creek followed in the winter of 1898, and 
attention was then turned to copper, with the result that the 
region is being thoroughly exploited and bids fair to become a 
permanent copper producer. 



Mineral Resources. ioi 

The district is somewhat irregular in shape. The tract 
embraced in the known mineralized country extends along the 
Wyoming-Colorado state line, easterly and westerly, for a dis- 
tance of about eighty miles, and northerly and southerly for a 
distance of from fifteen miles at Encampment to forty miles at 
Elk Mountain, near Saratoga, comprising about 2,000 square 
miles of mountain and valley. 

The Xorth Platte River, which rises in Colorado, in this 
locality flows northwesterly and divides the district into two 
distinct halves, with a valley some fifteen miles wide lying 
between and watered by numerous tributary streams on each 
side. Parallel with the river are mountain ranges on either 
side, that on the east being known as the Medicine Bow Range, 
and with this range a series of approximately parallel or con- 
nected smaller ranges, such as Elk, Coad and Wood Mountains. 

On the west is the Sierra Madre Range, composed of a 
number of similar ranges, known by various local names, and 
these form part of the great Continental Divide. 

Geology. — The Sierra Madre Mountains consist of an 
irregular core of granite, with smaller islands and spurs of 
the same material showing both in and through the associated 
metamorphic formations. The granite is usually of a reddish 
feldsitic variety, in many instances much altered, and show- 
ing little quartz or mica, but in others showing a predominance 
of quartz, inclining to the gray granites of Colorado, and fre- 
quently showing strong evidences of metamorphism, especial- 
ly in the outcrops, and which is usually limited in extent. 

The metamorphic formations consist principally of Algon- 
kian schists, usually lying on the granites and having a varying 
dip and trend or direction in different parts of the district. 
These schists are of a number of varieties, some of which are 
local or limited in extent, the usual schist being a fine grained 
black mica schist, and fine hornblende and tourmaline schist in 
bands varying from a few feet to several hundred feet in width. 
Associated with these varieties have been noted muscovite or 
white mica schists and gneiss, cerisite schist, garnet schist on 
Upper Cow Creek, chlorite schist and amphibolite schist in 
various localities. 

The dyke rocks noted are mainly diorites, some diabase 
and allied "dark colored dyke rocks. These dykes vary in size 
from a thin band a few inches thick to a huge sheet of several 
hundred feet in thickness, and generally lie conformably with 
the adjacent schist, having the same trend or direction and the 
same dip, but instances are noted, as on Upper Cow Creek and 
near the Syndicate on Savery Creek, where the dykes cut 
across the formation at a varying angle. These dykes are also 



102 The; State of Wyoming. 

noted at many places in the granite near the New Rambler on 
Douglas Creek and near Encampment and Battle. 

Associated with the schists and diorites are ledges or bands 
of quartzite, which lie conformably with the including schists, 
as far as now known, as at the Ferris-Haggarty mine and at 
Bridger Peak, and are usually of considerable extent. 

In many instances the foregoing rocks (schists, dyke 
rocks and quartzites) often show an extensive and sometimes 
a complete metamorphism and change from their original con- 
dition and composition, leaving only the structure as a means 
of identification, the composing minerals being replaced by 
silica and lime, as the schists near the Ferris-Haggarty are 
largely replaced by silica, and by lime on Jack Creek and at 
the Mohawk, on the North Fork of the Grand Encampment 
River. 

The Snowy Range, in the Medicine Bow Mountains, is 
distinct in formation from the adjacent country, and consists 
of trachite and quartzites, with an occasional dyke of porphyry. 

On either side of the Medicine Bow Range the carbonifer- 
ous limestones are noted, with the succeeding sedimentary 
formation dipping away from the main range, until covered 
by the wash of the valley. 

Mineralization. — The mineralization may be said to be 
general throughout the formation just described, but varies in 
quantity and composition in each locality. In the granites, 
schists, dyke rocks and quartzites are found bunches, streaks 
and veins of the different forms of iron and copper, both ox- 
idized and base, varying from a tiny crystal or speck to a huge 
mass a number of tons in weight enclosed in the adjacent 
rocks, which may or may not be part of or related to the body 
of ore. 

Ore Deposits and Ores. — In a district as little developed 
as the Grand Encampment country it is evident that the pre- 
cise ore conditions may not be fully understood until greater 
depths have been reached and some of each class of ores and 
ore deposits fully exploited. At present these are understood 
to consist of two classes, viz., ores found in the hard, un- 
changed formation, the diorites and unaltered schists, asso- 
ciated with a vein quartz, as at the Blakeslee and Verde prop- 
erties, south of Battle, as distinguished from the ores found 
as a contact deposit between two different formations, as rhe 
Ferris-Haggarty, Doane-Rambler mines, and a fissure deposit, 
as the New Rambler, on Douglas Creek, in a gray granite. The 
former may be termed original ores and the latter secondary 
ores, or ores of replacement. 



Mineral Resources. 103 

In the first case sulphide of copper is found in the out- 
crops, and with but little change beyond the surface oxidizing 
of the specimen and staining the adjacent rock with iron oxides 
and copper carbonates,, often leaving the unchanged sulphides 
only covered by a thin film of oxides. 

In the latter case the sulphides are encountered at "water 
level," viz., the level of permanent underground water, varying 
in depth in different localities and covered by a capping of 
iron oxides, known as the iron cap and the "gossan" of the 
Cornish miner. 

In many instances the iron cap contains thin scales of 
native copper and shows stains of the green carbonate of cop- 
per or Malachite and some blue carbonate of copper or Azurite. 

The principal ores are the yellow pyrites of copper or 
chalcopyrite and "peacock copper" or Bornite. as at the Fer- 
ris-Haggarty, and the Covelite ores of the New Rambler. 
Some phenomenally rich copper glance or chalcocite has been 
struck, mostly near the surface. 

The works so far have shown that the ores immediately 
succeeding the oxidized ores underlying the iron cap are very 
rich, often running from 35 to 49 per cent copper in car load 
lots, as shipping returns have shown, but this is evidently a 
secondary enrichment, due to the leaching of the iron cap 
above, and gradually gives place to the lower and more per- 
manent grade of ore that is reached as depth is gained. 

It is evident that the permanent ores of this district, when 
opened up by deep workings, will prove to be a low grade 
Chalcopyrite ore, suitable for treatment by a concentrating, 
roasting and smelting process. 

Gold- and silver values throughout the district have uni- 
formly been low, although some phenomenally rich gold values 
have been noted in the oxidized ores at Purgatory Gulch, the 
Charter Oak and some others, but with more attention being 
paid to this by-product, a higher grade may be anticipated in 
the future. 

Grand Encampment. — This town is the practical center 
of the mining activity of this region, is pleasantly located, sub- 
stantially built and has about 1,000 population at the present 
time. Here are located the principal supply houses, bank and 
headquarters of the principal companies operating in this dis- 
trict, and is the eastern terminus of the aerial gravity tramway 
from the Ferris-Haggarty mine to the Encampment reduction 
works, the location of the Encampment Power and Light Com- 
pany's works and the other enterprises owned by the Penn- 
Wyoming Copper Company. 

Aerial Tramway. — The tramway is sixteen miles in length, 
divided into four sections, with three auxiliary power stations. 



104 The State of Wyoming. 

one at the mine, one at Upper Cow Creek at the foot of Bridger 
Peak and one at Lower Cow Creek. These stations are 
equipped with power plants, storage bins, etc., to facilitate 
the operations of the line. Three hundred and four towers, 
with tension stations at intervals, are used to support the 
cables, which, moving at an average speed of four miles an 
hour, with buckets holding 700 pounds of ore each, are capable 
of delivering 984 tons of ore per day. 

The Encampment Reduction Works. — These works are 
located at the tramway terminal, on the west bank of the 
Grand Encampment River, and are favorably situated as re- 
gards convenience in operating, handling ores, tailings and 
slag dumps, etc. 

The ore from the receiving bins is delivered to the crush- 
ers and rolls, passes over rotary sizing screens, the coarse 
material passing over being elevated back to fire rolls, the 
finer passing through the screens, going on through the mill, 
and being sized and classified by sizers and jigs. The sized 
product passes over Wilfley concentrating tables for final 
treatment, and the concentrates, which run from 28 to 30 per 
cent copper, are sent to the briqueting plant, the tailings or 
waste being run into a tailing dam and settled. A mechanical 
straight line roaster has been installed to roast the high grade 
sulphides, with a capacity of forty tons per day. 

The smelter consists of two matte furnaces smelting to a 
50 per cent copper matte, which passes to the converter and is 
blown to blister copper. The entire plant is constructed on a 
500-ton capacity basis, and all power used in the smelter, for 
cranes, etc., is electric, except the blowers and air compressor, 
which are driven direct from the water power. 

During the winter just passed the Penn- Wyoming Com- 
pany has been making extensive improvements in its works, 
installing new machinery and replacing some of the old. Dur- 
ing the coming season other extensive improvements are 
projected, the principal one being a steam power plant, in 
order that the works may be operated the year around. 

The production of copper for 1904 was very satisfactory, 
the copper being produced at a cost of 6.38 cents per pound, 
including the forty-four-mile wagon haul to the railroad. The 
greatest amount of copper produced in one day was 41,000 
pounds, and in one month, that of October, 1904, 722,771 
pounds, and a production of a car load of blister copper per 
day is expected to be maintained for 1905. 

The Kurtz-Chatterton mine, west of Encampment, is the 
oldest in the district, and has a tunnel 1,700 feet long, with 
numerous drifts, shafts, etc. The ore is a low gi ade copper 



The Devil's Tower. Crook County. 




Nature's Doudee-Heabed Sphynx. 



Mineral Resources. 105 

sulphide in granite, suitable for concentration on an extensive 
scale. 

In this vicinity are the Great Lakes, Norvell-Pickerell, 
Moon-Anchor, Chicago-Venture, Winona-Rex, Sweet and 
others, which have been working steadily. 

Battle. — Towards Battle the Co-operative Company has 
been sinking on a vein of red iron oxides in schists and quartz- 
ite. This same condition is noted on the Hidden Treasure and 
Gertrude properties, and at intervals shows copper stains, both 
in the capping and quartz. 

On what is known as the Portland mine, owned by the 
Battle Lake Copper Mining Company, work has been active. 
Open cuts and shafts have been opened along the vein, fol- 
lowing it west and down the hill to Battle Creek, where a 
tunnel was started to follow the vein east into the mountain. 
At thirty-five feet from the portal the vein was encountered, 
which at this point shows gold and copper ore of workable 
grade and quantity. The tunnel has since been run a distance 
of over 200 feet. Open cuts and shafts have been sunk along 
the vein for a distance of about 2,000 feet and show ore of 
good grade. 

The Cow Creek country along the tramway line is again 
active. The Lena Shields, Continental and Copper Age are 
steadily developing with good results. South of Battle, the 
Itmay, Verde and Three Forks work is making steady pro- 
gress on promising showings. 

Doane-Rambler Mine. — Work on this mine, which is the 
oldest operating mine, as well as one of the best known of the 
district, for this year has been entirely on development, only 
the ore taken out during this work having been mined and 
saved, to be shipped at convenient intervals, and no attempt 
made at regular shipments. 

Great improvements have been made in the condition of 
the mine. Large new buildings have been erected and com- 
plete mechanical plant installed. The main tunnel has been 
completed, main shaft sunk from the 400 to the 600 level. 

Drifts and cross-cuts on the 400, 500 and 600 levels have 
exposed ore conditions that fully warrant large works. 

Ferris-Haggarty Mine. — This is the main producing prop- 
erty of the district, has produced over $1,400,000 since it was 
opened up, and is the main source of ore supply for the En- 
campment smelter. 

The vein is a contact deposit between schist and quartzite, 
showing a series of ore bodies varying in length up to 250 feet 
and in width from fifteen to forty feet. The ore is bornite and 
chalcopyrite, and the grade varies from a 35 to 40 per cent 



106 The State oe Wyoming. 

shipping ore to a 6 and 8 per cent concentrating ore, the latter 
predominating. 

Originally the property was worked by shaft and hoist, 
but a working tunnel has been run in at the lowest practicable 
level (giving about 500 feet depth on the dip of the vein) and 
complete plant installed at the mouth of the tunnel. The ore 
is stoped out by machine drills, thrown into chutes, run to the 
tunnel level and hauled out by compressed air haulage, seven 
cars to a train, and run directly into the tramway ore bins and 
thence to the smelter sixteen miles away. 

A hoist has been installed at the tunnel level and a winze 
sunk below this level, where drifts are being run on the ore 
and an active campaign opened for the production of ore dur- 
ing the coming season, which opens about May and closes 
December 15 following. 

Dillon Vicinity. — Work around Dillon has been very act- 
ive this year, the Anchoria, Jackpot, Independence, Pluto and 
Oshkosh-Wyoming Companies being especially prominent. 
The Congo property has developed steadily and makes a fine 
showing. The Bachelder has improved the plant and shaft, 
and is now doing permanent work. Work has also been active 
on the Octavia, Island City, Copper Bar, Home Run and a 
dozen others. The Echo property is especially interesting and 
promising, as a shaft is being sunk on a capping of iron oxides, 
identical with that of the Ferris-Haggarty, but lying with 
schist foot-wall and quartzite hanging-wall, where the Hag- 
garty has a quartzite foot-wall and schist hanging-wall. 

On Spring Creek the Copper Bar Company has erected a 
steam plant, and the Chippewa Mining Company has been 
doing work on a schist lead showing the usual oxidized sur- 
face condition, but with chalcopyrite carrying galena or lead 
sulphide at a very shallow depth and in considerable quantity. 
The Badger State Company has been sinking on a strong vein 
of quartz carrying copper and lead sulphides in mica schist. 

The Syndicate property on Savery Creek is working on 
a contact between an altered schist and diorite dykes. Con- 
siderable copper ore of good grade has been taken out. 

In Purgatory Gulch, situated six miles south of Encamp- 
ment, in 1897, some remarkably rich gold specimens were 
found, and formed the basis of the excitement which has de- 
veloped into the Grand Encampment Copper District. 

The Fremont Copper Company is operating on Dunkard 
Creek and has installed a plant of machinery for sinking an 
inclined shaft on a promising showing. 

The King-of-the-Camp, on the South Fork of the Grand 
Encampment River, is running a cross-cut tunnel to cut a 



Mineral Resources. 107 

quartz lead in schist that carries promising values in gold, 
and is one of the few properties in this locality being worked 
for gold alone. 

Beaver Creek is situated some twelve miles south of En- 
campment, and contains some promising prospects. 

The Aetna, the Evening Star, Bay-Horse, Ruby, News- 
boy and Kearns-Consolidated are prominent properties, have 
steam plants erected and have done considerable work. 

In the Gibraltar prospect, near Big Creek, eighteen miles 
from Encampment, a vein of iron oxides, stained with copper 
carbonates, was opened up and considerable good ore taken 
out. 

The Cox mine, on Big Creek, has produced some remark- 
able high grade copper ore, and several shipments have been 
made from it. 

The Charter Oak is one of the oldest properties in the 
district, and is located seven miles north of Encampment, in 
the northern edge of the foothills. Ores consist of sulphides 
in lower and oxidized in upper levels. 

Elk Mountain. 

This is the most northerly of the ranges comprising the 
Medicine Bow Range in Wyoming, and is a later uplift than 
the Sierra Madr.e, on the west side of the Platte. Here the 
sedimentary limestones of the Carboniferous period lie on the 
schists and granites of the earlier formations, and at the Elk 
Mountain M. & M. Company's property, on the north side 
of Pass Creek, the ore is found near the contact of these for- 
mations. This ore, in the upper workings, is copper glance, 
occurring in the bunches common to this ore, and in the lower 
workings is giving place to the chalcopyrite, which is becom- 
ing more common as depth is reached. 

The Cumberland Group, on the south end of Coad Moun- 
tain, shows a huge ledge of quartzose material, some twenty 
feet wide, lying conformably with the dip and trend of the 
schist and snowing a good trace of ore. 

The Camperdown Group, north of the Cumberland, has 
a remarkable showing of copper ore, similar to the Cumber- 
land, both of which are regarded as good development prop- 
ositions. 

New Rambler Mine. 

The Great Rambler mine is owned by the Rambler Min- 
ing and Smelting Company, is located on the crest of the 
Medicine Bow Range, in Albany County, and was first opened 
up as a gold prospect. In 1900 the first copper was struck at 
a depth of sixty-five feet, and the mine began immediately to 



108 The State of Wyoming. 

ship high grade copper ore. The formation containing the 
copper is a dioritic granite, with some micaceous schist in the 
vicinity, but the ore is found in a series of fissures in the 
granite. In common with the other prominent properties in 
Southern Wyoming, the surface and outcrops of the property 
show the usual oxidized forms of iron, with an occasional cop- 
per stain. The "iron hat," as this capping is called, extends 
to a varying depth and gives place to the various forms of 
copper minerals met with in this mine. The Rambler is a 
veritable museum of copper minerals, and nearly all the known 
forms have been found here either in quantity or as specimens. 
Native copper is noted in sheets often of a dendritic form and 
as small nuggets. Copper carbonates, green and blue, are 
abundant, as well as the silicates of copper. The red oxide of 
copper, Cuprite, and the black oxides, Tenorite and Mala- 
conite, are noted in quantity. Covellite, or "indigo copper," 
is the ore that made this mine famous, as this variety has 
always been a rare form, and seldom, if ever, found in the 
quantity in which it occurs in this mine ; the only small speci- 
mens of this variety are usually found in the different museums 
of minerals. Platinum has been found in the Rambler ores, 
occurring in the Covellite and showing 1.4 oz. of platinum per 
ton of ore. Palladium has also been noted in these ores in 
the Covellite ores with the platinum. The grade of ore at this 
property has been high, and a number of cars of very high 
grade ore have been shipped, especially that containing the 
glance and Covellite. These shipments show 1,928 dry tons 
of ore shipped, averaging 19 per cent copper and representing 
a gross value of $77,622. The general grade of the oxidized 
ores is low, and to treat these ores a matte smelter of forty 
tons per day capacity has been installed. The matte made and 
shipped is given as follows: Six hundred and thirteen thou- 
sand pounds matte, 249,196 pounds copper, $36,135.41 values. 
The grade of matte shipped varied from 30 to 60 per cent 
copper and the total amount of copper produced to date is 
828,970 pounds. 

West of the Rambler is the Blanche property, which has 
installed a mechanical plant, and the Blanche Mining Com- 
pany is sinking a shaft for the Rambler ore shoots. The shaft 
is down 175 feet and a number of stringers of good ore cut, 
but the main ore has not yet been reached. 

East of the Rambler the American Company has been 
sinking a development shaft on the Albany group of claims. 

Near by is the Cuprite claim of the Medicine Bow Mines 
Company of Laramie, where a tunnel now in 825 feet is being 
run. . 



Mineral Resources. 109 

On Lake Creek are the Maudem and Ottumwa properties, 
where tunnels are being driven to cut leads exposed on surface. 

On Iron Creek a huge ledge of iron oxides is noted out- 
cropping in general as a hard, silicious hematite, but often 
associated with deposits of brown limonite and frequently- 
carrying a small copper value. The shaft sunk by the. Ak-Sar- 
Ben Company on this material to a depth of eighty feet is 
the deepest working and shows a soft condition beneath the 
capping. 

The Strong Mine, northeast of Laramie, has developed 
steadily. A shaft house and hoist have been erected and the 
development work in the main shafts and drifts on the ore 
has shown up a remarkable body of concentrating ore. 

Southeast of the Strong mine, near the old camp of Silver 
Crown, considerable progress and development have been 
made during the past year. The Louise mine, owned by the 
Hecla Company, has sunk an encline shaft on the ore and 
cross-cut at a depth of 160 feet to a similar body lying along- 
side the original ore, and a good grade of ore has been no- 
ticed in both of them. 

The Globe Copper Company has reopened the old Fair- 
view mine and has developed a considerable body of copper 
ore. These ores are both the characteristic chalcopyrite ores 
of this region, and the Globe Company is erecting a small 
concentrating plant to handle the ores now in sight. Ex- 
tensive experiments have been made to determine the best 
method of treating these ores, and the successful operation 
of this plant will open a new field for Wyoming copper. 

Sunlight Mining District. 

Sunlight Basin, in Big Horn County, is attracting the at- 
tention of miners and prospectors, and considerable work is 
being done around Stinking Water Peak, one of the prominent 
peaks of the Absaroka Range. This region is located about 
sixty-five miles west and north of Cody, on the Burlington 
and Missouri River railroad, in the Yellowstone Park Timber 
Reserve, and about ten or fifteen miles east of the east line 
of the National Park. 

The formations here are mostly andesites, rhyolites and 
porphyry. Diorite is also noted in some localities ; basalt and 
conglomerates, both in massive sheets and dykes, are found. 

Almost all the prospecting up to the present time has been 
in the vicinity of Stinking Water Peak, in an area of about six 
or seven miles square, covering the heads of Sulphur, Copper 
and Galena Creeks, and the North Fork of the Shoshone River. 

The works of the Sunlight Mining Company, in Silver Tip 
Basin, are the principal works of the region, and consist of 



no The; State of Wyoming. 

three tunnels, ioo feet, 250 feet and 900 feet long, respectively, 
the latter being the main working tunnel, being run to cut 
an ore body that shows a surface width of about thirty feet of 
good grade ore. The ore from these works is a quartzose vein 
matter, carrying copper and iron sulphides, mostly chal- 
copyrite or yellow pyrites of copper, with a fair value in gold 
and silver. Some galena or lead sulphide is also found, which 
is often rich in silver. Shipments have been made from this 
property and showed a profitable return even in the face of a 
wagon haul of one hundred miles to the nearest railroad point 
at Red Lodge, Montana, after being packed for four miles 
down to the road from the mines. This region is favorably 
adapted for tunnel methods of mining, and thus prospecting 
may be carried on at all times and seasons, the winters being 
no more severe than in many of the mining regions of Colorado. 

The new camp of Kirwin, lying seventy-five miles south- 
west of Cody, has made wonderful strides during the past year 
and the work is rapidly advancing at the present time. The 
Galena Ridge M. & M. Company, Shoshone Mountain Mining 
Company and others have been developing a large number 
of claims here for the past eight years, doing prospecting and 
improvement work where necessary, and have reached the 
point of permanent development. Mechanical plants are being 
installed and mills erected and the underground development 
work carried forward under favorable auspices. 

The ores are copper and lead, carrying a higher silver 
and gold contents than is usual in this state, and the deeper 
works have shown that the values may confidently be expected 
to continue and improve with depth. 

Further .south, towards Washakie Needle and the Wind 
River Range, are a number of promising prospects and a vast 
territory to hear from. This, with the mountains of these 
chains in Uinta and Fremont Counties, is the most available 
new and undeveloped mining country in the west and is cer- 
tain to be the scene of many rich discoveries within the next 
few years. 

North of Laramie Peak, in Albany, Laramie and Con- 
verse Counties, work on a series of heavy iron caps is actively 
progressing. The formation here is schist and granite, and 
the principal showings are a series of huge oxidized iron caps 
lying in ledges of schists and gneiss and which show copper 
minerals in nearly every instance. These caps are usually 
immediately underlaid by pyrhotite and white iron pyrites as 
depth is gained, and these minerals seem to be replaced by 
quartz and chalcopyrite or yellow pyrites of copper. 

Prominent properties on these showings are the Maverick, 
Tenderfoot, Three Cripples and Maggie Murphy. The Three 



Mineral Resources. hi 

Cripples has the deepest shaft and shows the characteristic 
condition above noted. 

The Maggie Murphy Company is installing a machinery 
plant for deep work, and the present showings in the main 
shaft are very encouraging. 

The Esterbrook, which is the oldest location in this dis- 
trict, is sinking a shaft on the vein of silicious lead carbonate 
and has reached a depth of 258 feet. The showings here in- 
dicate that this lead cap is underlaid by copper sulphides as- 
sociated with galena or lead sulphides, and the company is 
now beginning to cross-cut and develop its showings at this 
depth. 

West of the above properties are the Oriole and LaBonte, 
in LaBonte Canon. At LaBonte a tunnel has been run. for a 
length of 550 feet, at which point the formation was cross-cut, 
showing a schist dyke highly mineralized with a width of 150 
feet. A drift near the center of this dyke has shown a shoot 
of low grade copper ores, and other shoots are expected as this 
development proceeds. 

At the Oriole mine development work has shown a low 
grade copper concentrating proposition, and a mill is expected 
to be installed during the coming summer. 

The list of promising prospects might be indefinitely con- 
tinued in every mountain range in the state, did space permit, 
but only the most prominent and best known localities are 
mentioned, and to name all would require a separate pub- 
lication. 

The total copper production of Wyoming from the earliest 
record to December 31, 1904, is as follows, the prices given 
being the average price of copper for the year : 

Number of Price per 

Year. Pounds. Pound. Value. 

1882 75,000 17.100 cents $ 12,757.50 

1883 962,468 13.700 cents 131,858.11 

1888 232.819 15.900 cents 36,017.32 

1889 100.000 12.000 cents 12,000.00 

1895 6,872 10. 1 10 cents 694.07 

1897. 127,471 1 1. 100 cents 14,149.28 

1898 233,044 12.000 cents 27,965.28 

1899 3,104,827 17.100 cents 530,925-39 

1900 4,206,776 16.250 cents 683,601.50 

1901 914,412 16.110 cents 140,909.82 

1902 75,297 11.620 cents 8,749.51 

1903 947,106 13.420 cents 127,101.62 

1904 4,220,000 12.831 cents 541,046.20 

Totals 15,206,092 $2,267,775.60 



The State of Wyoming. 



Oil, 



THE LIGHT OF AGES. 

When it comes to oil, Wyoming certainly bids fair to 
illuminate and lubricate the works of man for generations. 
The eighteen oil fields known in this state present a greater 
variety of product than any similar known area, as it varies 
from the highest grade of lubricating oils without a trace of 
illuminating constituents to an equally high grade of illuminat- 
ing oil totally free from lubricants, and with a range of inter- 
mediate oils and products that is a revelation to oil men. 

In each of the eighteen oil fields oil is flowing from springs, 
or there are thick bands of oil sand exposed. The greater num- 
ber of these fields are situated in the central part of the state, 
but there are fields in the northeastern part, in the southwest- 
ern portion, and in the northern central region. The oils that 
have been analyzed vary in nature from high grade lubricating 
to oils that will produce from 40 to 50 per cent of kerosene. 

With proper facilities for transportation, the oil industry 
in Wyoming will equal, if not surpass, that of any state. 

The greatest development is found in Natrona County, 
where a lubricating oil is found which has been pronounced 
by experts to be the best in the world ; and in Fremont County, 
where there are thirteen flowing wells, now capped for the 
want of a railroad. At Casper there is a refinery having a 
capacity of 200 barrels of crude oil per day. The product is 
hauled from the wells in wagons that have a carrying capacity 
of 18,000 pounds, each train of wagons requiring twelve to 
sixteen mules. This greatly adds to the expense of production. 
At present the following oils are manufactured at Casper : 
Railroad engine, railroad car, railroad valve and railroad sig- 
nal. These oils are the most perfect lubricants, of high en- 
durance, highest fire tests, and greatest body and wearing 
power. Besides railroad oils, the refinery manufactures other 
special high grade oils, viz. : Stationary engine, valve, spindle 
oils, dynamo oils, watch oils, neutral oils for blending animal 
and vegetable oils, paint oil, visco axle grease, and heavy ma- 
chine oil for mowing machines. The product of eight produc- 
ing wells varies in value from twenty cents to one dollar and 
fifty cents per gallon. 

The Bonanza field, in Big Horn County, is attracting a 
great deal of attention ; five wells recently drilled struck oil 
at 280 feet. 




On the Government Road Between Cody and Yellowstone Park. 



Oil. 113 

Geology. — Full information on this subject may be ob- 
tained by addressing a request to Miss Grace Raymond He- 
bard, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the University of 
Wyoming, at Laramie, Wyoming, for oil bulletins. The Uni- 
versity issues bulletins on the mining resources of Wyoming, 
prepared by the Professor of Geology from personal field in- 
vestigation. 

The Popo Agie Oil Field. — This field is situated ten miles 
southeast of Lander, Fremont County. It covers several town- 
ships and extends north to Lander. The history of this field 
is far more interesting than any other oil field. It was dis- 
covered by Bonneville in 1833, and is the place where the first 
producing oil well was drilled. From the date of Bonneville's 
visit up to 1867 the oil spring was unknown, except to the 
hunter or trapper, who frequented the locality to secure the 
oil for medicinal, lubricating, illuminating and other purposes. 
There are now thirteen flowing wells, with a capacity each of 
200 barrels per twenty-four hours ; owned by the Belgo-Amer- 
ican Drilling Trust, as are also the lubricating oil wells situ- 
ated on Salt Creek, with the refinery at Casper. The oil 
appears black, is reddish brown by transmitted light and has 
a strong, disagreeable odor. 

Flashing point go F. 

Burning point 136 F. 

Specific gravity 900 

Heating power. . . 11,437 calories per gramme 

In refining the products are gasoline and kerosene, about 
35-45 per cent, and the balance lubricating oils and asphaltum. 
The oil is of heavy asphaltum base and suitable for high grade 
fuel, tests giving 14,571,000 foot pounds of energy per pound 
of oil. One pound of this oil will convert 19.40 pounds of 
water at 212 F. degrees into steam. 

Analysis shows the following products : 

Naphtha (gasoline) . . . 2-5 per cent 

Kerosene, .810-.830 30-40 per cent 

Lubricating oil, .910-.940 35-50 per cent 

Paraffin 3-5 per cent 

Coke 7-10 per cent 

Gas 10-12 per cent 

Lander and Shoshone Oil Fields. — The Lander field joins 
the Popo Agie on the north, and the Shoshone joins the Lan- 
der on the north, extending into the Wind River Indian 
Reservation. 



•4 



The State of Wyoming. 



Distillation of Lander Petroleum. 
cubic centimeters of oil taken. Each fraction ic 5 per cent. 



No. of fraction 


Boiling 

Point 

Centigrade 


Specific 
Gravitv 


Degree 
Baume 


Flashing 
Point 


Burning 
Point 


Cold Test 






°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


I 


155-215 
215-235 
235-250 
352-265 
265-280 
280-285 
285-290 
290-295 
295-310 
310-325 
325-340 
340-345 
345-355 
355-365 
365-375 
375 
380 
385 


.8100 
.8218 
.8313 
.8400 
.8452 
.8500 
.8510 
.8565 
.8640 
.8680 
.8740 
.8725 
.8745 
.8820 
.8835 

.8705 
.8505 
.8800 


42.8 
40.4 
38.4 
36.7 
35.6 
34.6 
34.4 
33.4 
31.0 
31.3 
30.2 
30.5 
30.1 
2S.7 
28.5 
30.8 
34 5 
29.1 


51 
64 
82 
94 
107 
117 
120 
124 
137 
147 

147 
151 
137 
142 
109 
57 
57 


124 
148 
180 
202 
225 
243 
248 
256 
279 
297 
306 
297 
304 
279 
288 
226 
135 
135 


62 

93 

109 
122 
135 

137 
142 
157 
169 
178 
167 
167 
184 
177 
132 
84 
84 


144 
171 
200 
229 
252 
275 
279 
288 
315 
337 
353 
333 
333 
364 
351 
270 
184 
184 


—9 
-2 
1 
5 

9 




3 

4 




6 

8. '.'.'..'.'..'.'.'. '. 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 


16 

28 


16 


41 
38 


18 


48 



Distillation of Shoshone Petroleum. 
500 cubic centimeters of oil distilled. Each fraction is ■; per cent. 



No. 


>! fraction 


Boiling 

Point 

Centigrade 


j 


165 265 


2 


265-495 




205 305 


4 . . . 


5 


325 335 
.■;:;:> 


6 




335 


8 


325 


9 


315 


10 


305 


11 


255 



Specific 


Degree 


Flashing 
Point 


Burning 
Point 


Cold 'J 


Gravity 


Baume 












°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


.8590 


32.0 


27 


81 


67 


153 




.8840 


28.4 


72 


162 


137 


279 




.8888 


27.5 


72 


162 


122 


252 




.9065 


24.4 


82 


180 


139 


283 




.9125 


23.4 


92 


198 


147 


297 




.9235 


21.6 


107 


225 


167 


333 


-10 


.9175 


22.6 


97 


207 


155 


311 


— 7 


,8800 


29.1 


42 


108 


64 


148 


-10 


.8095 


25.6 


37 


99 


62 


144 


-11 


.8955 


26.3 


40 


104 


67 


153 


4 


.8790 


20.3 


37 


99 


57 


135 


-10 



The Salt Creek Oil Basin is situated fifty miles north of 
Casper, Natrona County. This oil is the finest lubricating oil 
in the world. It is hauled in wagons a distance of fifty miles, 
to Casper, to be refined. 

Analysis of Oil from Salt Creek Basin, Natrona County. 

Crude oil — red by transmitted and olive green by reflected light ; specific gravity, .9050 (25.2°B.) 



No. ot 
Distillate 


Boiling Point 


Specific 
Gravity 


Degree 
Baume 


Re 


marks 


°C. 


°F. 




1 

2 

3 


120-210 
210-265 
265-275 
275-280 
280-285 
285-290 
290-320 
320-340 


248-410 
410-510 
510-528 
528-536 
536-544 
544-554 
554-608 
608-612 


.8600 
.8710 
.8770 
.8730 
.8622 
.8393 
.8518 
.8610 
.8883 


32.6 
32.4 
30.3 
30.4 
33.3 
38.0 
35.4 
33.4 
28.4 


Flashes a 
Flashes a 


50°C.(121°F.) 
t08 o C.(219°F.) 








6 






8 . 








10 . . 






Coke 

















Color of above : Nos. 
the crude oil : No. 10, black. 



to 9, from dull 



color by regulai gradations to the color of 



Oil. 



ii5 



Uinta County Oil Fields. — This district includes several 
fields — Bear River Basin, Round Mountain, Fossil, Spring 
Valley, Twin Creek, Carter and Hilliard — and has many na- 
tural advantages over the other districts on account of its 
proximity to transportation, the Union Pacific railroad, and 
the points of distribution, Salt Lake and Ogden. 

The following analysis is a fair representation of the oil 
from several fields in this district : 

Distillation of Uinta County Petroleum. 





By Heating and Chang- 
ing Temperature 


The Percentage 
Distilled off 


Specific 
Gravity 

of 
Product 


Hydrom- 
eter 
Gravity 


Nature of Product 




From 


To 


By Vol. 


By Wt. 




A . . . 


G6°F. 


302°F, 


per cent. 
15 


per cent. 
17.1 


0.740 


60 


Gasoline and benzine 


B . . . 
C . . . 


302 
491 


491 
662 


33.1 
26.5 


33.4 
27.1 


0.S02 
0.830 


46 
35 


Illuminating 

Heavy illuminating, 
as Signal or Head- 
light 

Lubricating Oil and 
Paraffin 


D . . . 

Residue 


*662 
Bituminous 


Boiled dry 
, soluble 


19.5 


20.4 
1 


0.840 


31 




Carbon & ash, insol. 


? 


1 









Per cent. 

Naphtha, 6o° F. (gasoline and benzine) 27.0 

Water white kerosene, 45 Baum6, 145 flash, 172 fire test. 25.5 

Signal and headlight, 45 Baumfj, 300 fire test 7.0 

Lubricating reduced stock, 23. 5 Baum6 40.5 



The cold test of the crude oil is 58 F., and the amount of 
crystallized paraffin that was present in the lubricating stock 
is 18.5 per cent. 

The Newcastle Oil Field is located in the vicinity of New- 
castle, county seat of Weston County, on the Burlington rail- 
road. 

This petroleum is similar in composition to the Salt Creek 
oils and belongs to the class of heavy oils, and is not suitable 
for the production of gasoline or kerosene, although they can 
be obtained from it. Its chief value will be for lubricating and 
for fuel purposes. It is, in its natural state, an excellent lubri- 
cant, has a high gravity and low cold test, a high viscosity 
and shows no paraffin or asphalt. This oil is also well fitted 
for the manufacture of gas. 

The Newcastle petroleum as represented by the samples 
taken from the pit of Eagle Spring has a specific gravity of 
.9168 (22.8 Baum£). It flashes at 122 C. (251.6 F.) and 



If, 



The State of Wyoming. 



takes fire at 153 C. (307.4 F.). The odor is not disagreeable, 
and for many purposes it could be sold as a lubricating oil in 
a crude state. No paraffin crystallizes out on cooling and little 
or no asphalt is left on distilling. The viscosity at 6o° F. is 
29.43, using Engler's viscosimeter and compared with the vis- 
cosity of water. 

Distillation of Newcastle Petroleum from the Pit. 

15-ro cc. in copper flask. Collected in 5 per cent fractions. 



Specific 
Gravity 



.874 

.881 

. sss 



.'.Mlii 
.903 
.!Hi:i 
.900 
,874 



31.2 

30.2 



26.0 
26.0 
26.0 
2") 2 

251) 
25.0 

30!l 

31.0 
26.0 
25.2 

27.5 

24.8 



Flashing 
Point 



Burning 
Point 



Light ye'low 



ight green fluorescence 



green fluoresence 



Reddisn yellow, green fluo 

Red, strong fluoresence 
Dark red, strong fluoresence 



The Bonanza Oil Field and the Cottonwood Oil Field are 
in close proximity to each other in Big Horn County, near the 
No Wood River, a tributary of the Big Horn. Active develop- 
ment work is now being carried on in this district, a very fine 
grade of oil having been found. 

Analysis of Bonanza Oil. — Specific gravity, .8446 (36 
Baum6). Color: Red; strong green fluorescence. Odor: 
Like kerosene. Flashing point: 13 C. (55 F.). Burning 
point: 35 C. (95 F.). 

Distillation into 10 per cent fractions : 
Fraction. 



No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 
No. 



Boiling Point. Color. 

8o° C— 142 C Water white. 

142° C. — 177 C Water white. 

C. — 209 C Water white. 

C. — 240 C Straw. 

C. — 265 C Darker yellow. 

C. — 303 C Darker yellow, slight fluo- 
rescence. 

C. — 350 C Reddish yellow, stronger 

fluorescence. 

No. 8 350 C. — 380 C Reddish yellow, stronger 

fluorescence. 

C. — 400 C Red, bluish fluorescence. 

C. Seven per cent collected. 



No. 7. 



No. 

No. 



.177^ 

,209 c 
240 c 

,26 5 c 

■303 c 



, 3 8o c 
■ 400 c 



Oil. 



117 



This petroleum will work up into the following products : 

Gasoline 20 to 25 per cent 

Kerosene 55 to 60 per cent 

Light lubricating oil 5 to 10 per cent 

Paraffin 2 to 4 per cent 

Coke and loss 4 to 6 per cent 

The Douglas Oil Field is situated a short distance south 
of Douglas, county seat of Converse County, elevation 5,000 
feet. The quality of the crude oil in this section is exceptional 
and will work up into remarkable lubricating oils. 

Distillation of Douglas Petroleum. 
Amount used, 500 cc, in grammes, 4S0. 5 gr. ; Specific Gravity, .9610; Degree Baume, 16 ; 



Flashing Point, 164 °C. 


327 °F.); Burning Point, 195 


°C. (383 ° 


F.) ' 










Boiling Point g 


jecifio 

rarity 


Degree 
Baume 


Flashing 


Point 


Burning 
Point 


Amount 
Grammes 




°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


A 
















25.00 


B 

C 


170-279 
279-308 
308-310 
310-312 
312-317 
317-324 
324-345 
345-350 
350-341 
341-338 
338-348 
348-340 
340-334 
334-321 
321-309 
309- 


338^534 
534-586 
586-590 
590-593 
593-602 
602-615 
615-653 
653-662 
662-645 
645-640 
640-658 
658-644 
644-633 
633-609 
609-588 
588- 


8805 

8810 
8852 
8634 
8757 
9100 
9128 
9075 
9022 
9090 
9110 
9063 
9000 
9122 
9200 


29. 

27.6 

28.9 

28.1 

32.1 

29.9 

23.8 

23.4 

24.3 

25.2 

24. 

23.7 

24.5 

25 5 


50 


122 


95 


203 


22.01 
22.20 


D 

E 


30 


86 


86 


186 


22.03 
22.13 


F 

G 


Below 15 


59 


28 


82 


21.58 
21.89 


H 


27 


80 


96 


204 


22.75 

22.82 


J 

K 


Below 15 


59 


54 


129 


22.69 
22 55 


L 

M 


Below 15 


59 


58 


136 


22.73 

22 78 


N 

O. . . . 


Below 15 


59 


47 


116 


22.66 


P 

Q 


23.5 
22.1 


Below 15 


59 


20 


68 


22.80 
7 36 















The Oil Mountain Field is situated twenty-five miles west 
of Casper, Natrona County. This petroleum is principally 
valuable for lubricating purposes, although the most of it could 
be worked up into kerosene for open lamps, such as miners use. 

Distillation in a Vacuum of Petroleum from Oil Mountain. 

10 per cent fractions, 35 millimeters pressure. 



No. 


Boilin 


Z Point 


Specific 
Gravity 


Degree 
Baume 


Flashing 
Point 


Burning 
Point 




°C. 


°F. 


°C. 


°F. 


°c. 


°F. 


1 

2 . . . 

i. '.'..'.'.'.'. '.'.'.'. 

4 

5 

6 . 


180-211 
211-242 

269-276 
276-310 
310-320 
320-335 
335-340 
340-340 


356-112 
412-468 
468-516 
516-527 
527-590 
590-608 
608-635 
635-644 
644-644 




873 

881 
893 
899 
906 
909 
910 
898 
894 
897 


30.4 
29.0 
26.8 
26.0 
25.5 
24.0 
23.0 
26.0 
26.8 
26.0 


112 
137 
155 
160 
193 
200 
167 
98 
80 


234 
279 
311 
320 
379 
392 
333 
208 
176 


196 
201 
223 
237 
250 
287 
255 
203 
179 


385 
394 
433 
459 
482 
549 
491 




8 


9 

10 


354 





















The Dutton Oil Field is situated partly in Fremont County 
and partly in Natrona County. Many oil springs are found 
here and natural gas is quite abundant. There is practically 



n8 



The State oe Wyoming. 



no development in this district. The oil has a gravity of .927 
(21° B.). 

The Belle Fourche Oil Field is situated about fifteen miles 
north of Moorcroft, on the Burlington railroad, in Crook 
County. In the early history of the discovery of gold in the 
Black Hills, needing lubricating oil for the machinery, men 
were employed in this field in collecting oil from the springs, 
which was transported by wagon to Deadwood and there sold 
for $28 per barrel. 

Belle Fourche Petroleum. 



Per 

Cent 



2.74 
2.30 
2.01 
2.74 
2.18 
3.07 
3.28 
4.11 
4.27 
4.66 
4.27 
5.09 
4.32 
4.77 
6.29 
9.53 
6.74 
10.79 
14.98 
1.91 



Boiling Point 



Below 200 
200-230 
230-240 
240-250 
250-260 
260-270 
270 280 
280-290 
290-300 
300-310 
310-320 
320-330 
330-340 
340 350 
350-360 
360-370 
370-380 
380-390 
390-400 
Residue , 



°F. 



Below 392 
392^46 
446-404 
464-482 
482-500 
500-518 
518-536 
536-554 
554-572 
572-590 



60s -626 
626-644 
644-662 
662-680 
680-698 

716-734 

734-752 



Specific 
Gravity 



.775 

.828 
.846 
.852 
.857 
.863 
. 869 
.874 



Degree 



50.0 
39.1 
35.4 
34.3 

33.3 

32.2 
31.1 
30.2 
29.3 
28.6 
27.5 
27.0 
26.6 
25.9 
25.7 
25 7 
25.4 
24.4 
23.8 



Flashing 
Point 



Burning 
Point 



333 
311 
274 

257 



The Powder River Oil Field is located on the South Fork 
of Powder River, sixty miles northwest of Casper, county seat 
of Natrona County ; fifty miles south of Buffalo, county seat of 
Johnson County. There are many oil springs in this field. 
This is one of the best fields in Wyoming ; the structural feat- 
ures are ideal. This petroleum is heavy and black; the odor is 
slight, resembling common kerosene, and in general character 
is similar to Salt Creek oil and the Popo Agie oil. 

Distillatioti in a Vacuum of Petroleum from Oil Canon, Powder River Field. 

10 per cent fractions, 35 millimeters pressure. 



No. 


Boiling Point 


Specific 
Gravity 


Degree 
Baume 


Flashing 
Point 


Burning 
Point 




°C. 


°F. 


°c. 


OF. 


°C. 


°F. 


1 

2 


130-180 
180-2C0 
200-220 
220-246 
246-248 
248-308 
308-334 
334-320 
320-364 


266-356 
356-392 
392-428 
428-475 

475-478 
478-586 
586-633 
633-608 
608-687 


.842 
.860 
.870 
.888 
.902 
.902 
.957 
.957 
.882 
.900 


36.1 
32.4 
30.8 
27.5 
25.2 
25.2 
16.9 
16.9 
28.6 
25.4 


57 
72 

77 
74 
176 
190 
184 
67 
55 
47 


135 
162 
171 
165 
349 
373 
363 
153 
131 
117 


95 
92 

110 
205 
228 
249 
118 
83 
93 


160 


3 

4 

5 


198 
230 
401 


7 

8 

9 

10 


480 
244 
181 
199 









Wyoming Manufactures. 119 

The Rattlesnake and Arago Oil Fields are on the north- 
east slope of the Rattlesnake Mountains in Natrona County. 
Here is found asphaltum in sufficient quantities for commercial 
importance, if it were not for the lack of transportation. 

Development. — The successful and profitable development 
of many of the oil fields depends largely upon the construction 
of new railway lines — an investment fully warranted by this 
resource — but there are a great many opportunities presented 
in many of the fields which are adjacent to present railway lines 
for profitable and highly remunerative development. 



Wyoming Manufactures. 



For thirty years Wyoming, with its 97,000 square miles 
of mountains and plains, suitable for the grazing of innumer- 
able flocks and herds, has been looked upon as a purely stock- 
raising and mining region, but a change is coming over the 
spirit of her dreams. The gigantic irrigation projects now 
under full headway have attracted wide attention to our agri- 
cultural possibilities. Under the reclamation act, passed by 
Congress three years ago, the United States Government is 
about to reclaim several hundred thousand acres of Wyoming 
soil. This, in connection with numerous individual projects, 
has served to call attention to the fact that Wyoming has some 
eight million or ten million acres of land susceptible of irriga- 
tion and which can be made as productive as any soil in the 
world. Therefore, it is evident that this state will in the near 
future be transformed from a purely pastoral region into one 
of the foremost agricultural commonwealths in the west. As 
agriculture is the basis of all wealth, it naturally follows that 
varied and innumerable resources heretofore almost unthought 
of will spring into life. Even now some of the great railroad 
systems of the country are contemplating extensive construc- 
tion within our borders, and doubtless the next three years will 
witness more railroad building in Wyoming than in any other 
state in the Union. Heretofore one of our greatest drawbacks 
has been the lack of railroad facilities, but, unless all signs fail, 
we will not have this to contend with for very long. 

Increase in population will bring manufacturing establish- 
ments. There are grand opportunities. Wyoming possesses 
four elements that would make a great manufacturing state, 
had she nothing more — iron, coal, copper and oil. And these 
elements exist here in almost unlimited quantities. The Colo- 



120 The State oe Wyoming. 

rado Fuel and Iron Company sends to Guernsey, Wyo., for 
the iron with which to make its finest steel. That iron should 
be manufactured into the finished product in this state. Im- 
mense steel plants could be successfully operated within our 
borders. The coal, the iron and the limestone should be 
brought together and the magic wands of capital and labor will 
doubtless do it in the near future. Transportation costs too 
much money for capitalists to forever ship our rich raw ma- 
terials to factories beyond our borders. 

At the present time we have 450 manufacturing establish- 
ments in Wyoming, representing an investment of over 
$3,000,000. All these establishments are doing well, but there 
is a wide field and great demand for more institutions of this 
character. Iron and steel plants could be established in the 
immediate vicinity of our great iron mines at Guernsey, Hart- 
ville and Sunrise, saving the expense of long haulage and 
utilizing the cheap water power, which may be obtained from 
the immense dams soon to be constructed on the Platte River 
by the government and obtaining either coal or coke from near 
by coal fields, and with the advantage of railroad facilities east 
and west, they could certainly be operated more cheaply than 
like establishments situated hundreds of miles away from the 
mines and necessarily paying enormous freight charges for the 
transportation of the raw material. 

The wonderful onyx which is found in unlimited quan- 
tities in Northern Laramie County is transported at great cost 
in a crude state to be manufactured in distant localities, the 
waste, of course, being enormous. Polishing and manufactur- 
ing plants could be located right at the mines and the finished 
product shipped direct to market. In several localities, par- 
ticularly near Laramie, Wyo., cement and plaster of paris 
plants are now in operation, but more could be worked with 
great profit and the output tremendously increased. In the 
southern and eastern sections of the state are immense quan- 
tities of mineral paint only requiring the investment of small 
capital to be manufactured into a paying product. The exhibit 
of various kinds of building stones and marble at St. Louis 
attracted wide attention to the possibility of manufacturing 
these products as successfully in Wyoming as in Vermont. 

In five widely separated fields oil has been discovered in 
practically unlimited quantities, and over two hundred varie- 
ties of illuminating and lubricating oils have been manufac- 
tured from the natural product. Many bi-products of great 
value are also secured from this natural oil. At Casper, Wyo., 
a small refinery has been in successful operation for many 
years. 



kj a 3 

O GfQ 

2 




Wyoming Manufactures. 121 

Dairy products are also receiving considerable attention, 
and in Star Valley, in Uinta County, two large creameries have 
been established, which ship large quantities of butter and 
cheese as far west as Washington and Oregon, and north to 
the Butte and Anaconda mines, in Montana. 

The development of agriculture will call for the establish- 
ment of many manufactories in connection therewith, such as 
canning factories of all kinds and sugar beet plants. Speaking 
of the latter, it is noted in one of the reports of the Secretary 
of Agriculture that beets which have been grown upon irri- 
gated lands in Wyoming are uniformly of high character and 
rich in sugar. It is evident that there is perhaps no crop 
which can be so successfully cultivated upon irrigated lands 
as sugar beets. For then we have almost perfect climatic con- 
ditions. During the growing seasons almost unbroken sun- 
shine prevails, a condition essentially favorable to the pro- 
duction and storage of large crops of sugar beets. Then in 
this high altitude summer is not too warm for the proper 
growth of the beets, and the control of the water for irrigation 
purposes renders it possible to stimulate the growth of beets 
during the earlier periods of the summer, while the withdrawal 
of the water prevents any second growth after the beets have 
matured. 

Actual experiments have given the following percentages 
of sugar in beets grown in different localities in the state : 
15.25 per cent at Lander, 15.85 at Saratoga, 17.85 at Wheat- 
land and 18.36 at Sheridan, and as high as twenty-four tons 
to the acre have been produced. 

Some 8,000,000 acres of land in Wyoming are covered with 
splendid pine timber, and the lumber industry is susceptible of 
great development. 

Wyoming is particularly fortunate in having immense op- 
portunities for water power plants, the power from which by 
means of electricity can be carried to any point where it may 
be desired to establish a manufacturing plant. Her inexhaust- 
ible supply of coal and coke is also worthy of consideration in 
this connection. Her laws are very favorable and many of her 
cities offer special inducements for manufactures. 

Bear in mind that Wyoming is rapidly changing from a 
great pastoral region of flocks and herds to an agricultural 
commonwealth, and that this change will vastly increase the 
demand for manufactured products. Remember that heretofore 
we have been handicapped by lack of transportation facilities, 
but that now we are about to witness more railroad building in 
Wyoming during the next five years than in any other state. 
Our products will then have free access to the great market 
east, west, north and south. Also remember our inexhaustible 



122 The State of Wyoming. 

coal measuers, our unclaimed water power, our unlimited nat- 
ural resources of oil, iron, soda, wool, marble, building stone, 
fruits and vegetables, and then picture, if you can, the limit of 
successful manufactures. Here in this high altitude, under 
cloudless skies and upon rich irrigated land, the sugar beet 
reaches perfection both in quality and quantity. Sugar can be 
manufactured cheaply and successfully. Here the wool can be 
manufactured into cloth and the cloth shipped to market, in- 
stead of paying freight through to Boston annually on thou- 
sands of tons of Wyoming sand. Here we can grow the finest 
fruits and vegetables, and canning factories can supply this 
whole interior region. Here our natural oil can be trans- 
formed into 150 varieties of the finest lubricating and illuminat- 
ing oils on the market, together with numberless bi-products. 
Here steel can be manufactured by the side of the iron mine, 
and one pound of watch springs will have greater value than a 
car load of the high grade Bessemer steel ores shipped today 
by the train load from Guernsey to Pueblo, Colo., for manu- 
facture. Here great beds of natural soda (the most important 
of all the articles of chemical manufacture) can be reduced into 
numerous chemical products, including even glass. And so 
one might go on enumerating the many opportunities for pro- 
gress in this particular line of occupation. 



Educational Advantages. 

The State of Wyoming is notable for the educational ad- 
vantages it gives the children of its citizens. In educational 
matters it leads many of the older states, in that it employs 
a larger number of teachers in proportion to its population ; 
that its school year is longer ; that the salaries paid its teach- 
ers, especially those paid women teachers, are higher, and that 
its school methods are at all times kept in unison and harmony 
with the latest and best in modern education. 

The amount of funds raised in Wyoming for school pur- 
poses by voluntary taxation is liberal, and expenditures in edu- 
cational matters are not stinted. The district school board 
provides free text-books for all pupils. The latest and most 
approved text-books have been purchased and supplied to every 
school district in the state. The result of this liberality and of 
the careful attention given the schools of the state by its citi- 
zens and school officers has been to keep the percentage of 
illiteracy in Wyoming below that of any state or territory. A 



Educational Advantages. 123 

practical illustration of this was shown at the muster of troops 
in the state for service in the Spanish war. Of 1,000 young 
men who enlisted in Wyoming, not one was unable to sign 
his name to the muster rolls, and every man had received a 
fair education. 

The last school census showed that there were 22,391 
school children in the state. These are in attendance at 615 
schools. Sparsely settled communities in Wyoming enjoy 
equal school facilities with more thickly settled regions. It is 
the universal custom in the state to establish a school if five 
pupils can attend. A compulsory school law is on the statute 
books, but it has never been found necessary to enforce it, as 
school attendance is voluntary. 

The number of teachers employed in the state is about 
700. The salaries paid teachers in Wyoming average $70.78 
per month for male teachers and $46.39 for female, which, when 
it is considered that the country schools of the state form the 
great majority of the entire number, compare most favorably 
with salaries paid in other states. 

The 400 school buildings of the state are well built and 
comfortable. The cost of construction has been $503,390.43, 
while repairs and improvements amounting to ten thousand 
dollars are made annually. As the sparsely settled communi- 
ties of the state grow, the primitive log building which at 
first constitutes the school house gives place to the neat 
frame or brick structure with all the modern apparatus for 
successful educational work. 

The State Superintendent has prepared a uniform course 
of instruction for the graded and ungraded schools of the 
entire state. This has served to systematize the work of 
teachers and County Superintendents, and has added ma- 
terially to the effectiveness of the service. 

One of the most valuable aids to the support and main- 
tenance of the public school system in Wyoming is the fund 
received annually from the rental of school lands. During 
the year ending March 31st, 1905, the sum of $80,747.27 was 
received from this source and distributed to the school of- 
ficers of each county in proportion to the number of pupils 
in each. School libraries in the different counties contain 
20,000 volumes. The total acreage of school land in the 
state which may be utilized for this purpose is 3,600,000 acres. 
It may reasonably be expected that sufficient income will be 
received from the rental of school lands within the near future 
to increase the efficiency of the schools of the state to the 
highest degree, and this without imposing additional burdens 
upon the taxpayer. 



124 The; State; of Wyoming. 

The University of Wyoming. 

The University of Wyoming is a part of the free public 
educational system of the state. The governing body of the 
institution is a Board of Trustees appointed by the Governor 
for a term of six years, as provided in the constitution of the 
state. In accordance with the law of the state, the University 
aims to complete and crown the work that is begun in the 
public schools by furnishing the ample facilities for liberal 
education in literature, science and art ; and for professional 
studies in mining, mechanical and irrigation engineering, agri- 
culture and commerce. 

The College of Liberal Arts (including the Graduate 
School) offers a four years' course in the study of literature, 
art and science, and affords opportunity to those who wish to 
carry their studies beyond the limit of the regular course. 

For the benefit of those who wish to be trained for some 
special profession, four schools are provided, viz., the Normal 
School, the School of Mines, the College of Agriculture and 
the College of Mechanical Engineering. These courses are 
designed to give a thorough and practical preparation for the 
professions most in demand in Wyoming. 

The School of Commerce offers a four years' course in 
commercial methods and practice. The four years' course 
includes, also, a thorough preparation for the freshman class 
of the College of Liberal Arts. 

The School of Music offers a seven years' course in piano 
and vocal training. 

The Summer School offers courses running for six weeks 
in preparatory, collegiate and normal studies. The work is 
adapted especially for teachers. 

The University is founded and maintained for the pur- 
pose of being as useful as possible to the people of Wyoming. 
A university has a double duty. It is to advance human 
knowledge and to teach that which is already known. The 
LTniversity of Wyoming, therefore, devotes its attention not 
only to the study of problems of general interest and theoret- 
ical importance, but especially to the solution of those prac- 
tical problems which confront the people of this new and 
undeveloped state. A state university, too, cannot confine 
its teachings to the students within its halls, but must en- 
deavor as far as possible to supply to those who ask for it 
impartial and reliable information on any of the problems 
which confront the people of this new and undeveloped state. 

Besides the instruction of students in residence, the Uni- 
versity is able to extend its educational advantages to a con- 
siderable extent to the people of the state generally, both by 



Educational Advantages. 125 

lectures and correspondence. It should be understood that 
the library, museums and laboratories of the University are 
for the benefit of everybody in the state ; and as far as the 
time of the members of the faculty permits, they are willing 
to give help in such ways as advice in the choice of books, 
arranging courses of private reading and study, naming 
plants, minerals and insects, and giving information on the 
natural resources of the state and how to use them. 

Buildings. — The first building to be erected on the campus 
was the Liberal Arts building. It is 150 feet in length and 
50 feet in breadth, having three stories and a commodious 
garret and store room, above the basement. The material 
used in its construction is native sandstone. The rooms, 
twenty-eight in number, as well as all the corridors, are 
heated by steam and lighted by electricity. The auditorium 
in the second story is the finest assembly hall in the state, 
and will seat with comfort four hundred people. 

A second building, costing $12,000, with a commodious 
wing, was completed in the spring of 1893 for the College of 
Mechanical Engineering. Another large wing was added in 
the summer of 1897. The Mechanical building is constructed 
of the same material as the Liberal Arts building, and con- 
tains twelve rooms. The new wing of the Mechanical build- 
ing has been fitted up for the use of the School of Mines. 
About $12,000 has already been spent in equipping the build- 
ing with tools and machinery. 

A third building, known as the Hall of Science, was com- 
pleted in 1903. The building has been so planned that wings 
may be added as more room shall be needed. The portion of 
the building already constructed is 50x80 feet, with a two- 
story extension on the rear, and cost $39,000. In this building 
are located the University Museum, rich in fossils, especiallv 
of the Jurassic period ; the Rocky Mountain Herbarium, con- 
taining about 50,000 specimens, and the laboratories of biol- 
ogy, geology and chemistry. 

The Armory and Gymnasium was erected in 1903 at a 
cost of $15,000. It is a brick structure, with stone trimmings. 
The entire floor, covering a space of 45x90 feet, is available 
for company drill and team work. A running track is sus- 
pended from the ceiling. The basement of the building, con- 
sisting of five rooms, is fitted up for office, bath rooms and 
armory. 

Equipment. — Since the founding of the institution more 
than $100,000 has been expended for apparatus in the different 
scientific departments. The museum has a large and valuable 
collection of fossils. The herbarium contains the largest col- 



126 The State of Wyoming. 

lection of Rocky Mountain flora in existence. The shops are 
well equipped for woodwork, ironwork, founding- and forg- 
ing. In the assaying department students have the use of 
three single and one double furnace, a steam rock breaker, a 
hand crusher, sampling mill, six pulp and three button bal- 
ances. The University Library contains 18,000 well selected 
books, besides a large number of pamphlets. 

Original Research. — The Wyoming Experiment Station 
is the department of research of the College of Agriculture 
of the University. The results of its experiments are pub- 
lished in bulletins, which are sent free on request to residents 
of the state. Some of the sixty-five bulletins thus far pub- 
lished are : Potatoes, Fruit Growing in Wyoming, Cultivated 
Shade and Forest Trees, Some Native Forage Plants for 
Alkali Soils, Alfalfa as a Hay Crop, Wyoming Sugar Beets, 
Lamb Feeding Experiments, Alkali, Wheat Culture. At 
present the station is carrying on extended experiments in 
stock feeding, both in the chemical analysis of forage plants 
and in the digestion of selected rations. 

The School of Mines has issued twelve bulletins on the 
oil and mineral resources of the state. 

The Professor of Chemistry at the University is also 
State Chemist. Experiments to detect food adulteration are 
constantly in progress in the laboratories. A number of bul- 
letins have been published on this subject. 

Settlers new to the country will find in these university 
publications information, especially as to crops and methods 
of developing our resources, which may save thousands of 
dollars and years of work in fruitless experiments. 

The Support of the University. — The University is sup- 
ported by both federal and state aid. The federal aid consists 
of the Morrill grant of 1862 for the endowment of Colleges 
of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, and the Hatch fund of 
1887, for the support of studies pertaining to agriculture and 
the mechanical arts. The state aid consists of the ^-mill 
annual tax on the property valuation of the state, besides spe- 
cial legislative appropriations. There is also a small income 
from University lands. 

Frederick Monroe Tisdel, Ph. D., is President of the 
University. 



The Climate and Its Benefits. 



Mountain Ranges. — Nine-tenths of Wyoming lies within 
the Rocky Mountain region. Strictly speaking, the whole 



The Climate and Its Benefits. 127 

state is a region of vast plains, relieved by broken and de- 
tached ranges and mountain spurs. In the eastern part of the 
state we encounter the Laramie Range, which extends north- 
westerly for 200 miles. 

Proceeding westward, after traversing the southern por- 
tion of the Laramie Plains, we come to the Medicine Bow 
Mountains. Crossing the Platte River, which, with its tribu- 
taries, occupies a breadth of fifteen to twenty-five miles, we 
come to the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, in a broken 
series of ranges extending through the state. From the west- 
ern base of the Laramie Range, after crossing the Laramie 
Plains, nearly 100 miles in width, an east and west range of 
mountains is found, which constitute the southern front of 
the Sweetwater Valley. This wall bears several names, to- 
wit : Sweetwater, Seminoe and Ferris Mountains, ranges 
about five to twelve miles in width, and in length almost 
eighty miles. West of these lies the Green River Valley, 
sixty to seventy miles across. 

Returning to the eastern boundary, we find the Black 
Hills extending to the northern boundary of the state, where 
they come in contact with the Little Missouri and Wolf 
Mountains, whose high and picturesque heads occupy much 
of the northeastern corner of the state. 

Passing over the beautiful valley of the Powder River 
and its tributaries, towards the west, we come to the mag- 
nificent Big Horn Range, fifty miles in breadth, extending 
150 miles in Wyoming. Beyond flows the Big Horn River, 
watering a basin fifty to one hundred miles in width. Still 
beyond, in a southwesterly direction, are found the Owl 
Creek, Rattlesnake and Wind River Mountains, the last named 
being the most extensive, with a direction corresponding to 
that of the Rocky Mountains. In fact, they form a part of this 
great chain, and, extending for a distance of 200 miles from 
the point of departure from the Sweetwater Range, finally end 
in the Yellowstone National Park. 

Still west of this range lie the upper basins of the Green 
and Snake Rivers, the two being separated by short spurs, 
known as the Gros Ventre and Wyoming Mountains, con- 
necting the Wind River with the Wasatch referred to as con- 
tributing, for about 100 miles, to the western wall of the state. 

From 'the general description of the position, extent and 
course of mountain ranges, widely distributed over the state, 
it will be seen that large areas of valley and plain must exist. 

General. — There is no region of equal area that is pos- 
sessed of more abounding and diversified richness of resources 
and possibility. It is almost as limitless in undeveloped op- 



128 The State of Wyoming. 

portunities as it was when Bonneville first broke his way into 
Jackson Hole — now the wonderland of the United States. 

Medical Authorities. 

"In selecting a climate, the question of degree of tem- 
perature is a minor one. A dry, equable temperature is always 
preferable. Dry cold is not dangerous, and is, indeed, prefer- 
able to enervating warmth." (Wood and Fitz, Practice of 
Medicine.) 

George Burney, M. D., says : "In selecting a climate for 
a consumptive, the first question which occurs to us is the 
inquiry as to the proportion of sunny days in which outdoor 
exercise can be safely enjoyed. In the great majority of cases 
a dry climate, with abundant sunshine and pure air, consti- 
tutes the desideratum." 

Dr. Weber says : "Setting aside individual peculiarities, 
the majority of tubercular patients do best at a height of three 
to six thousand feet." 

Dr. Knight of Boston says : "In suitable cases (those in 
which large cavities are not formed in the lungs) the improve- 
ment in nutritive activity is much more marked in mountain- 
ous regions than on the plains," and that "four to eight thou- 
sand feet is the proper altitude." 

The cases that are most favorably impressed here are : 

1. Where the apices are early affected. 

2. Those without cavities, although advanced and with 
consolidation. 

3. Recent cases whose salient symptom is hemorrhage. 

4. A non-progressive cavity is benefited. 

5. Remaining consolidation after pleurisy and pneu- 
monia. 

6. Chronic laryngeal also no worse here than elsewhere. 
Cure for Special Maladies. — If one were called upon to 

select a climate calculated to benefit a patient suffering from 
a particular malady, it would seem the most rational to select 
one where that particular disease or class of diseases did not 
prevail, and as endemic phthisis has never been known to 
generate in Wyoming, no stronger argument could be ad- 
vanced in favor of this being a curative climate. 

Resorts of any desirable elevation are within reach. 
Wyoming presents climatic influences equally favorable for 
the restoring of those invalided by bronchial maladies and 
catarrhal states of the throat and naso-pulmonary air-pas- 
sages as it presents for the allevation and cure of tuberculosis. 

This is the region, par excellence, for asthmatic people. 
Many hundreds of people of all ages thus afflicted have come 
here from the low altitudes of the east and west, have been 




Canon of Shoshone, Six Miles West of Cody, 




fc £ 



£ O 



£ a 



w ° 



The Climate and Its Benefits. 129 

restored to health and vigor, and today are among the most 
active and prosperous of our citizens. 

Our altitude does not militate even against those who 
have valvular disease of the heart, unless where compensation 
is destroyed, and accompanied by dilation and weakness. 

Chronic laryngitis and bronchitis are speedily cured by 
residence, unless they exist as complications of advanced 
stages of consumption. Persons whose habits of life do not 
allow or compel them to fully expand their lungs in a pure 
atmosphere; pale, anaemic clerks, those of sedentary habits, 
with hacking coughs ; nervous and dyspeptic people ; chil- 
dren with narrow, stooping shoulders and flat breasts, with 
impaired digestion, should come to these mountains, if pos- 
sible, as the air of this region necessitates full breathing; 
every cell in the lungs is forced into activity, straightening the 
form, increasing the breathing area, and hurrying the blood, 
thus purified, freely through the lungs. The choice of climate 
for the patient is the most important part of the treatment. 

Climatology — Record for Five Years. 
Temperature. — The mean temperature averaged 41.7 de- 
grees. August was the warmest month, with a mean of 67.4 
degrees, and December was the coldest, with a mean of 17.4 
degrees. The highest monthly mean was 73.4 degrees for 
July, and the lowest was 5.8 degrees for December. The 
highest temperature was 105 degrees, during July and Au- 
gust, and the lowest was 30 degrees below zero, during De- 
cember, an extreme range for the state of 135 degrees. 

Precipitation. — The yearly precipitation was 12.58 inches, 
slightly below the normal. May was the month of greatest 
precipitation, when nearly twice the normal occurred. Sep- 
tember was the dryest month of the year, the average being 
that of 0.25 of an inch, or about one-fourth of the normal. 
The average was above the normal the remainder of the year. 

Weather. — The percentages of clear, partly cloudy and 
cloudy days were 50, 32 and 18, respectively. There was an 
average of sixty-seven days on which 0.01 of an inch or more 
precipitation fell. Foggy weather in the state was not usual, 
as at Lander dense fog did not prevail for an hour at any time 
during the year, and at Cheyenne but twice. The percentage 
of sunshine at Cheyenne was 69, being least in May, 43, and 
greatest in September, jj. 

Climatic Conditions. — The heat is never intense. In the 
hottest summer weather it is but a step from the heat of the 
sunshine into the shade, which is always cool. Sunstroke is 
unknown. The air in winter is clear and sharp, but easily 



130 The State of Wyoming. 

borne and even pleasant. All over the state — except at high 
altitudes — one may, even in midwinter, sit in comfort in the 
sunshine in any sheltered corner. In the shade there is the 
tingle of northern cold, and heavy clothing is none too warm. 
The tonic effect of this climate upon nutrition is from this 
coolness the more marked. It is the brilliant and continuous 
sunshine which is much praised by mountain residents, and 
which is misunderstood to refer to air. The invalid who 
comes to Wyoming for a winter is not coming to a climate of 
balmy warmth, but, rather, and better, to one where the brac- 
ing cold is flooded for more than three-fourths of the day 
with bright sunshine. 

Vacation Resort for Tourists and Hunters. — There is no 
better district in the Rocky Mountains for a holiday or camp- 
ing tour than in Wyoming. The stillness of the mountain 
soothes and quiets those who have become mentally exhausted 
from prolonged strain and anxious cares or absorbing occupa- 
tions. Its summer is cool, and in the higher parks the nights 
are cold. Autumn is an unbroken stretch of cool and sunshiny 
days. Game and fish are abundant. The railroads carry one 
to within a short ride, by horse or wagon, through yet un- 
broken wilderness. From June to October is the season for 
roughing it. With restoration to health, Wyoming does not 
say, "Now return to your home," but, rather, welcomes the 
restored invalid and holds out to him many inducements to 
remain. 

Such, briefly sketched, is this mountain empire — vast in 
extent, presenting the most picturesque scenery, the greatest 
charm of climate, the riches of forest, stream and mine, a 
treasure house of untold wealth, whose unlimited possibilities 
and incalculable resources, together with the bluest and 
gentlest of heavens bending above, invite the sick and well 
alike to come and partake of the free offering, and remain, a 
valued addition to our population. The climate is one of the 
richest endowments of Wyoming. It is exhilarating; cheers 
and braces each individual, lending character to our civil and 
industrial life, and imparting to our citizens a robustness of 
physique unequaled in any country in the entire world. 



Hunting and Fishing. 



The stringent laws for the protection of fish and game en- 
forced in Wyoming during the past ten years have made Jack- 
son Hole the greatest big game hunting ground in the world. 
Five thousand elk were seen there last fall in one day. Lying 



Hunting and Fishing. 131 

as it does south of the Yellowstone Park, it has been a safe re- 
treat for large game for a number of years, and has gradually 
filled up with the game driven from other states. Sportsmen 
may leave the Union Pacific at any point in the western part 
of the state and outfit for the Jackson Hole country. Parties 
can secure outfits at Cody and find competent guides who will 
take them through the beautiful scenery of the' National Park, 
Yellowstone Forest Reserve and Jackson Hole. 

To those who have seen some of the thousands of elk and 
deer gathered in Jackson Hole, it is not necessary to make 
any explanation ; others must satisfy themselves. 

In order to hunt large game or game birds, a hunter must 
procure license. To an elector of Wyoming, or a soldier or 
sailor stationed at a Government Post for the year past, a 
license is issued upon payment of $2. For a non-resident the 
fee is $5 for a gunner's license permitting the hunting of game 
birds, and $50 for a hunter's license for the killing of game 
animals. Non-resident hunters must be accompanied by a 
licensed guide when hunting game animals. 

During the open season licensed parties may kill not to 
exceed two elk, two deer, two antelope and one mountain 
sheep between September 15 and November 15, and not more 
than twelve game birds in any one day. The barter or sale 
of any part of the animals or birds, above mentioned, or the 
possession of more than the specified number, is prohibited, 
under penalty of heavy fine or imprisonment. License must 
be carried and shown upon request. Game killed by non-resi- 
dent licensed hunters may be shipped from the state, upon a 
certificate from a justice of the peace stating that such animals 
were killed according to law. It is unlawful to sell any part 
of any wild animal, hides, horns or tusks, or to use dogs for 
the purpose of coursing or running the animals above men- 
tioned. Taxidermists cannot buy hides, horns or any part of 
game animals or birds, but mounted birds or stuffed heads 
and horns of animals lawfully killed may be shipped within or 
without the state. 

Open Season. 

Grouse — Laramie, Albany and Carbon Counties, August 
1 to October 15. 

Grouse — Other counties, September 1 to November 30. 
Sage Chickens — August 1 to October 15. 

Deer, Elk, Antelope and Mountain Sheep — September 15 
to November 15. 

Snipe, Plover, Ducks and Geese — September 1 to May 1. 

What of the Art of Angling? 

Wyoming is a natural home of the trout. Nature planted 
them in the head waters of the Colorado and Missouri. The 



132 The; State of Wyoming. 

North Platte and its tributaries were neglected, but the state 
fish hatcheries plant several million trout each year, and now 
almost every stream in the state furnishes sport for the fish- 
erman. 

Tourists coming west through Cheyenne and Denver will 
find splendid trout fishing on the Big or Little Laramie Rivers, 
leaving the railroad at Laramie City. A little farther west 
the fisherman can leave the Union Pacific train at Walcott and 
drive twenty-three miles to Saratoga, where he may fish in 
the North Platte River, running through the town, go up 
stream to some of the ranches which furnish fishermen with 
accommodations, or fish down stream, as he may prefer. Brook 
trout weighing five pounds and rainbow trout weighing ten 
pounds are caught in the Platte near Saratoga. Many hun- 
dreds of rainbow trout weighing from two to eight pounds 
have been caught within the city limits. 

Tourists passing through the northern part of the state 
over the Burlington Route will find excellent fishing near 
Sheridan, and those taking the Cody Route to the National 
Park will stop near some of the finest trout streams in the 
west. 

There is no sport like fishing to soothe the over-wrought 
nerves of the tired and weary professional or business man ; the 
man who is tied to his desk with a burden of care from one 
week's end to another. With rod and creel and a well-stocked 
book of flies he may fling earthly cares to the wind and enjoy 
heavenly bliss in angling for trout. There is nothing like it 
to restore health of brain and brawn. Many men lose their 
lives by not regarding the necessity of outdoor recreation. 

Picture a scene on one of our streams. The month of 
August is at hand, and mosquitos and flies have ceased to vex. 
The day is dark, a little breeze ripples the still places and the 
big fish are alert for food. Over a steep riffle the water breaks 
and dashes swiftly into the hole below, swirls, eddies and runs 
slowly off beneath overhanging willows. An old log is athwart 
the stream and just above, at the upper end of the eddy, is a 
still place upon which the angler has set his heart. Full sixty 
feet of line is necessary to hide the artist from his wary prey. 
It is swinging in air. The cast is made and the line goes true, 
the tail fly lighting squarely upon the gauged spot. As swift 
as a flash of light a mighty rainbow leaps from his lair, an 
involuntary motion of the angler's wrist drives the steel barb 
home and the struggle is on. He is high in air. Note his 
beauty and magnificence. From gill to tail his iridescent colors 
flash back the light. But it is only a look. He is back in the 
water and away, spinning the reel for full seventy-five feet of 
line despite the "drag." Again he leaps and the great test of 



State; Fair at Douglas. 133 

the expert's skill is here made, for the line may be slacked by 
the sudden stoppage of the mad race, and slack line means loss 
of trout. His rapid movement while above the water appears 
as though he would free himself by a terrific shake, but it is 
simply the movement he would make were he in the water 
below. Now down again and back and forth he dashes across 
the stream ; then with the speed of the wind he rushes full 
toward the fisherman, who must be expert indeed if he takes 
up the line as fast as he approaches. At the upper end of the 
pool he stops, a few struggles are made, and he is reeled to the 
shore and gently drawn upon the sandy beach. He weighs four 
pounds. What a beauty ! How often is the story repeated. 



State Fair at Douglas. 

For the purpose of advancing the material development of 
Wyoming, the Wyoming Industrial Convention was organized 
in 1901. This convention consisted of about five hundred del- 
egates, and its meetings were held in different cities. The first 
meeting was held in the City of Laramie, the second at Chey- 
enne, the third at Sheridan and the fourth at Casper. At the 
Casper meeting it was decided to go to the Legislature with a 
recommendation for a permanent state fair, and that body 
passed an act selecting the town of Douglas as the location 
and appropriating $10,000 toward the enterprise. 

Douglas has entered heartily into the matter and the first 
state fair will be held in that city on Tuesday, Wednesday, 
Thursday and Friday, October 3, 4, 5 and 6. More than six 
thousand dollars will be offered in premiums on agricultural 
products, live stock and mineral exhibits. The buildings will 
cost about eight thousand dollars, and it is anticipated that the 
first Wyoming state fair will be well worth the time and 
money required in making a journey to Douglas, no matter 
what your location on the continent may be. 

Those who desire information in relation to the state fair 
should address Hon. James M. Wilson, President, or Hon. 
M. R. Collins, Secretary, Douglas, Wyo. 



Frontier Celebration at Cheyenne. 

Condensed History of the Mammoth Show. 

This year, September 2, 4 and 5, Cheyenne will give its 
Ninth Annual Frontier Celebration, which is probably one of 



134 The State; of Wyoming. 

the most thrilling and interesting shows that has ever been 
enacted in any country. Although it started in a small way 
nine years ago, it has not only achieved a national reputation, 
but many come from the old world to witness it each year. 

It requires the entire time and undivided attention of the 
managing board for several months to arrange the many de- 
tails for this big celebration. More than one thousand persons 
will take part in the program this year. The best riders and 
ropers, and the most expert and skillful cowboy and lady 
riders come from all over the world to compete for the honor 
of winning the championship prizes offered on this occasion. 

Many cities have tried to imitate this show, but it is safe 
to say that there is no place in the world where it can be 
given as it is at Cheyenne. They have the wild horses and 
cattle, and the best riders and ropers here assembled on the 
vast ranges in the Rocky Mountain region of which Cheyenne 
is the central point. Cheyenne is the only city that has the 
material at hand to give such a celebration, and this year 
thousands of people will come from all over the United States 
and many from Europe to witness the unique and exciting 
program of frontier sports. 

President Roosevelt, with his party, made a longer stay 
in Cheyenne than in any other city that he visited, in order 
to witness a short program of frontier sports that had been 
hastily arranged, but which was so interesting and unique 
that he said it was the most enjoyable feature of his entire trip. 

When the idea was first originated of giving an annual 
celebration to perpetuate frontier scenes and re-enact the 
thrilling experiences of western life, it was started at Chey- 
enne in a very small way, and it has met with an overwhelm- 
ing success from the very start, and today it is conceded to 
be by far the most popular and the biggest celebration of any 
kind held in the west. 

The cost of holding the celebration this year will exceed 
$12,000, and it is estimated that more than 25,000 people will 
attend. Although several months in advance, more than 
1,000 reservations for seats from New England cities and 
Boston have already been made, and all the special trains 
carrying members of the Grand Army of the Republic to the 
National Encampment at Denver have arranged to stop at 
least one day in Cheyenne to attend this celebration. 

The Frontier Association has purchased attractive and 
well equipped fair grounds adjoining the city and has made 
a great many improvements in the past few years, and will 
greatly increase the seating capacity of its grandstand this 
year. 



Wyoming at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 135 

The celebration is a public enterprise and one of incal- 
culable benefit to the citizens of Cheyenne. It has always re- 
ceived the hearty support of all Wyoming citizens and it is 
an event each year that they take great pride in participat- 
ing in. 

Applications have already been made from all over the 
western country, from the Canadian border to Texas, for 
entries by the cowboys and others who make up the perform- 
ers on this occasion, and there is no doubt that there will be 
a much greater number of competitors to contest for the 
prizes this year than ever before in the history of the show. 
It is also expected that a band of over three hundred Indians 
will be brought to Cheyenne from the reservation to join 
in the festivities. 



Wyoming at the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition. 

Wyoming does not ask the people of the earth to take her 
word for it, but is willing to show them — even in Missouri. 
When that great exposition known as the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition was held in the City of St. Louis, an able com- 
mission represented Wyoming there, and they exhibited pro- 
ducts of her soil and mines, with the result that many grand 
prizes, gold and silver medals, etc., were brought back to 
cheer the hearts of the people and to make the citizens of 
other states envious. Following is a partial list of the awards 
made to Wyoming exhibitors : 

Wyoming Experiment Station, Laramie — Collective ex- 
hibit of grains, grasses and forage plants, grand prize. 

John McFarlane — Brome grass, grand prize. 

J. F. Lewis — Collective exhibit of native grasses, forage 
plants and grain in straw, grand prize. 

Wyoming State Commission — Collective exhibit of native 
grasses, cultivated forage plants and grains, grand prize. 

E. W. Allred— Wheat, gold medal. 

E. J. Bell — Barley, gold medal. 

Charles Buell — Oats, gold medal. 

J. M. Carey & Bro. — Oats, rye, spelts and alfalfa, gold 
medal. 

George S. Eyre — Oats, gold medal. 

J. A. Fischer — Beans, gold medal. 

Charles Ferri — Wheat in straw, gold medal. 



136 The State of Wyoming. 

Charles Griffin — Oats, gold medal. 

Charles Hyer — Wheat in straw, gold medal. 

Wilson McBride — Oats, gold medal. 

Moncrief Bros. — Wheat, gold medal. 

O. A. Mortenson — Oats, gold medal. 

Reick Bros. — Wheat, gold medal. 

J. G. Spencer — Alfalfa seed, gold medal. 

C. J. Simmons — Oats and wheat in straw, gold medal. 

Mrs. C. J. Simmons — Collection of native and cultivated 
grasses, gold medal. 

Wyoming Development Company — Oats, alfalfa seed and 
wheat, gold medal. 

Ed Young — Grains, grasses and forage plants, gold medal. 

John Zing — Beans, gold medal. 

Wheatland Roller Mill Company — Flour, gold medal. 

C. W. Gettys — Wool, gold medal. 

F. S. King Bros. — High grade wool, gold medal. 

Platte Valley Sheep Company — Range wool, gold medal. 

Collective exhibit of Wyoming woods and table manu- 
factured from them by Mr. John H. Gordon, gold medal. 

State of Wyoming Collaborator, C. B. Richardson, gold 
medal. 

Wyoming Geological Survey, Cheyenne, Wyo. — Coals 
and iron ores, gold medal. 

Wyoming World's Fair Commission — Crude and refined 
petroleum, gold medal. 

State Geologist of Wyoming — Mineral paint ores, gold 
medal. 

Wyoming Railway and Iron Company — Iron and steel 
products, gold medal. 

Battle Lake Tunnel Site Mining Company — Copper ores, 
gold medal. 

C. A. Guernsey — Mineral paint and iron ore, gold medal. 

International Onyx and Marble Company — Onyx, gold 
medal. 

Laramie Mining Exchange, Albert Richards — Ore collec- 
tion, gold medal. 

In addition to the foregoing, a large number of silver and 
bronze medals were awarded to Wyoming exhibitors. 



Railroads and Stage Routes. 



Tourists passing through Wyoming on the transconti- 
nental railroads see little of the agricultural portion of the 
state, as the railroads for the most part run on the divides 



Railroads and Stage Routes. 137 

between water courses, while the farming settlements and 
irrigated lands, as in all semi-arid regions, are in the valleys 
of the rivers and creeks. The Union Pacific runs across the 
southern portion of the state for 468.97 miles, connecting at 
Green River with the Oregon Short Line for Oregon and the 
Northern Pacific country. The Colorado and Southern has 
a line running from Cheyenne to Orin Junction, 153.68 miles, 
connecting with the Chicago and Northwestern branch, run- 
ning from Crawford to Casper, with a trackage of 130.43 
miles in Wyoming. The Burlington Route has four branch 
lines entering the state — twenty-nine miles of the Cheyenne 
and Holdredge line ; 236.59 miles of the main line from Lin- 
coln, Neb., to Billings, Mont., running through Newcastle and 
Sheridan, connecting at Toluca, Mont., with the branch line 
to Cody, Wyo., a distance of 129 miles (44.61 in Wyoming), 
and by which all points in the Big Horn Basin may be 
reached; and 41.32 miles of the line from Alliance up the 
Platte River to Guernsey, Wyo. The Colorado and Wyo- 
ming ore road, 14.55 niiles long, connects the Colorado 
Southern and Burlington roads with the iron mines at Sunrise. 
An extension of the Northwestern system from Casper to the 
Indian Reservation and north to Thermopolis Hot Springs, 
and a branch of the Burlington Route from Garland to Ther- 
mopolis and to the reservation are promised by June 1, 1906. 

There is a coal road, 6.6 miles of which is in Wyoming, 
from Belle Fourche to Aladdin, and another nineteen miles 
long from Diamondville to Spring Valley. 

Stage lines cover the state thoroughly. Daily stages 
running from Laramie to North Park, Colorado, carry mail 
and passengers to points on the Big Laramie River. To reach 
the Encampment country the best route is from Walcott 
station, on the Union Pacific railroad, where all trains stop 
regularly. From this point stages run to Encampment via 
Saratoga, leaving Walcott regularly at seven o'clock in the 
morning daily. Extra stages in afternoon. These stages are 
four and six-horse Concord coaches, in charge of experienced 
drivers, and run through on schedule time. The distance is 
twenty-three miles to Saratoga and forty-three to Encamp- 
ment from Walcott. 

From Encampment daily stages leave for Battle, twelve 
miles ; Rambler, fourteen miles, and Dillon, nineteen miles ; 
and connections are made for camps south or near the state 
line and Pearl, Colorado, about thirty miles. 

Livery teams and saddle horses may be had here for 
different parts of the district not reached by stage. A line 
runs daily from Laramie, the county seat of Albany County, 
to Holmes, a distance of forty-five miles, via Centennial. 



138 The State of Wyoming. 

For Dillon and Rudefeha, where the Ferris-Haggarty 
mine is located, connections by team may also be made from 
Rawlins, the county seat of Carbon County, on the Union 
Pacific railroad, a distance of fifty-two miles, over a good road 
recently opened up for travel. 

From Saratoga the different points in the Elk Mountain 
vicinity may be reached by team, and also a number of the 
camps on Spring Creek and Jack Creek. 

Freight is brought in mainly over the Walcott-Saratoga- 
Encampment road and distributed to the various camps 
throughout the district. 

A daily stage and a mail route runs from Rawlins, on the 
Union Pacific railroad, to Lander, 135 miles, with connections 
at Meyersville, ninety miles out of Rawlins, for Lewiston, 
Atlantic and South Pass City, and another mail line from 
Casper to Lander and Thermopolis. 

Lander, the county seat of Fremont County, may also be 
reached by team, and stage connections there made for Ther- 
mopolis and Cody, on the Burlington and Missouri railroad, 
and to Casper, 150 miles, on the' Chicago and Northwestern 
railroad. 

The best method of reaching the South Pass district for 
a short stay is by team from Rock Springs, as the eighty 
miles to South Pass may be covered in two days without 
material inconvenience, and good accommodations had at 
Washington's ranch, a half-way station. 

South Pass has a good hotel, and this may readily be 
made headquarters while the district is being investigated. 

The most direct way into the Sunlight country is from 
Cody, by way of Hart Mountain, Pat O'Hara Creek, Dead 
Indian Hill and Sunlight Creek, the road having been built 
up the latter creek as far as the mouth of Galena Creek. From 
this road trails for pack animals lead up to Sulphur Creek, 
up Galena Creek, and thence over and around the mountain to 
the mines in Hughes Basin and Silver Tip Basin, on the west 
side of Stinking Water Peak. 

The new road just constructed by the United States Gov- 
ernment from Cody to the National Park, and which, by the 
way, is one of the finest and most picturesque roads in the 
west, runs within twenty miles of Silver Tip Basin, with a 
good pack trail from the mouth of Jones Creek to the Basin. 
Two hotels have been constructed on this route and daily 
stages run over the new scenic road. 

Other lines leave Rawlins for Dixon and Baggs and the 
Snake River, Colorado, country; from Casper to Central 
Wyoming; Clearmont to Buffalo; Moorcroft to Sundance, 



Wyoming Wants. 139 

connecting with mail routes ; from Sheridan to interior points 
in Sheridan and Johnson Counties; from Garland to Byron, 
Cowley and Lovell ; from Garland to Basin, from thence to 
interior towns; from Cody to Meeteetse and Thermopolis; 
branches from Meeteetse to interior postoffices; Basin to 
Thermopolis, via Welling and Worland. Stage lines run 
from Opal to Big Piney, connecting with interior points. 



Wyoming Wants. 



In reading the history of this northwest, viz. : De la 
Verendrye's Expedition in 1742; Lewis and Clark Expedition, 
under authority of Congress, in 1804; Washington Irving' s 
Astoria, 181 1 ; Captain Bonneville's Expedition, 1832, and Cou- 
tant's History of Wyoming — in all of which the territory 
embraced within the limits of Wyoming was the center of the 
scene of action — one is astonished at the terrible hardships, pri- 
vations and perils undergone by brave men for the com- 
paratively little wealth to be realized from peltries. Today, 
surrounded by the best civilization and without hardship, 
privation or peril, an unlimited and permanent wealth awaits 
the investor and worker in the following needs of Wyoming : 

The Burlington railroad to extend from Guernsey west 
across the center of the state. 

A north and south railway through the center of the state. 

A number of short railway spurs or feeders to the present 
railway, lines, for the development of mineral, oil and agricul- 
tural resources — which must otherwise remain undeveloped 
or unprofitable. 

With the accomplishment of the above, the following 
wants would be speedily fulfilled : 

Iron foundries and rolling mills. There are mountains of 
the finest iron ore in the world. 

More coal mines. Wyoming is all underlaid with coal. 

More capital invested in irrigation systems — ditches and 
reservoirs. 

More practical irrigators. 

More farmers who are not afraid to work. 

More practical prospectors. 

More practical mining men as investors, operators and 
workers. 

More practical oil investors and well drillers. 

Beet sugar factories. 

Money to loan at 6 and 8 per cent on A No. 1 securities. 



140 The State of Wyoming. 

A local trust company. 

A local fire and life insurance company. 

Every city in the state needs a truck garden. There are 
a hundred opportunities in this line to make a competency. 

Five hundred chicken ranches. Eggs sell for 25 to 50 
cents per dozen. Chickens sell for 50 to 80 cents each. 

Woolen mills — great opportunity. 

Flour mills. 

Glass factory. 

All "knockers" rounded up and colonized on a Pacific 
island. 

Wyoming only needs thorough investigation by capital 
and workers to become the home of prosperity. 



Public Buildings. 



The Capitol building at Cheyenne is classical in style and 
Dears a resemblance to the capitol at Washington. 

The Wyoming University, located at Laramie, is de- 
scribed under the article on Education. 

The state maintains fish hatcheries at Laramie, Saratoga, 
Sundance, Sheridan and Lander, which hatcheries each year 
stock the mountain streams with trout of various varieties. 

The Penitentiary building is located at Rawlins. 

The State Deaf, Dumb and Blind Asylum is located at 
Cheyenne, but is not in use on account of the small number 
of such unfortunates. 

The Insane Asylum is located at Evanston. 

Two General Hospitals are maintained by the state, one 
at Rock Springs for the southern section of the state, and one 
at Sheridan for the northern section of the state. 

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Home is located at Buffalo, 
where the state owns 1,270 acres of rich agricultural land and 
has buildings worth $100,000. 

Wyoming also possesses a Poor Farm, situated at Lan- 
der, but, owing to the fact that the state has no poor, the farm 
has been rented and the proceeds applied to its improvement, 
so far as necessary, and the remainder allowed to accumulate 
as a fund for the future, should it ever be needed. 



Banks and Interest. 



141 



Banks and Interest. 



In all the larger towns are located national banks, while 
in the smaller towns are found banks incorporated under state 
law. The legal rate of interest is eight per cent, but any rate 
agreed upon, not exceeding twelve per cent, is valid. The 
usual bank rate on time deposits is four per cent ; the bank 
loan rate is from ten to twelve per cent. 

Following is a summary of the conditions of the banks 
in Wyoming at the dates indicated : 





January 22 
1904 


March 28 
1904 


June 9 
1904 


September 6 
1904 


November 10 
1904 


National Banks. . 
State Banks . . . 
Private Banks . . 


$7,580,240.45 
1.703,728.:S9 
1,249,389.04 


$7,472,841.48 
1,768.081.87 
1,183,881.85 


$7,919,617.60 
1,754,878.14 
1,202,896.81 


$8,181,840.46 
1.929.365.67 
1,242,198.11 


$9,126,851.69 
2,104,958.69 
1,417,159.73 


Total .... 


$10,533,357.88 


$10,425,405.20 


$10,877,392.55 


$11,353,404.24 


$12,648,970.11 



Number of banks: National, 19; state, 15; private, 8. 



Taxes and Public Indebtedness. 



The wise restrictions in the State Constitution are a sure 
guarantee that in Wyoming taxation will never be excessive, 
or the public debt burdensome. It is there provided that for 
state revenue there shall not be levied to exceed four mills on 
the dollar of the assessed value of property for all state pur- 
poses, except for the payment of the public debt, with interest, 
and the support of state charitable and educational institu- 
tions, and not to exceed twelve mills on the dollar for all 
county purposes, excepting the county debt. Special school 
taxes may be authorized by the qualified voters of the several 
districts. 

The state's original bonded indebtedness was $320,000. 
This is being reduced as rapidly as possible under the con- 
ditions of the bonds, $80,000 having been paid off during the 
last four years, leaving now a debt of only $240,000. Each 
county in the state is also paying off its bonded indebtedness. 

Incorporated cities and towns are limited to eight mills 
on the dollar, excepting for the payment of their public debt. 
The state debt is limited to one per cent of the assessed val- 
uation, while two per cent is the limit on counties, cities and 
towns. 



142 The State of Wyoming. 

Statement Showing the Valuation of the Several Counties of 
the State for the Year 1904 — One-fourth actual Value. 

Albany County $4,360,099.86 

Big Horn 3,774,424.90 

Carbon 5>569>094-33 

Converse 2,540,232.45 

Crook 2,336,929.28 

Fremont 2,089,585.00 

Johnson 2,092,425.98 

Laramie 6,782,438.32 

Natrona 2,035,491.92 

Sheridan 3,433,524.15 

Sweetwater 4,072,054.91 

Uinta 5,747,805.31 

Weston 1,862,842.34 

Total $46,696,948.75 

Total Property Assessed in 1904 at One-fourth Actual Value. 

Railroad and car companies $ 7,714,668.26 

Telegraph and telephone lines 311,375.45 

Lands and improvements 11,078,694.55 

Town lots and improvements. 7,072,966.00 

Horses 1,986,085.00 

Cattle 7,908,098.00 

Mules and asses 35,672.60 

Sheep and goats 5,211,839.65 

Swine 19,475.00 

Dogs 1,101.00 

Clocks, watches, jewelry, gold and silver plate. . . 24,591.00 

Musical instruments 91,683.00 

Capital employed in manufactures and mdse. . . . 2.477,575.02 

Carriages and wagons 439,819.40 

Moneys and credits after deducting debts 450,127.00 

Stocks in corporations 206,768.00 

Farming utensils and tools 366,293.50 

Private libraries 23,315.00 

Household furniture ($100 exempt) 112,436.57 

Other property not enumerated 1,164,364.75 

Total $46,696,948.75 



Public Libraries. 143 



Public Libraries. 



Wyoming early made provision for the purchase and ex- 
change of valuable law books and reports. The library is in 
charge of the State Librarian, under the direction of the Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court, and is open during the business 
hours observed by the public officers at the capitol. The law- 
library contains nearly 8,000 volumes, exclusive of the public 
laws and documents of the state. 

Of the 260,000 acres of land granted by the General Gov- 
ernment for state charitable, educational, penal and reforma- 
tory institutions, in addition to special land grants for such 
purposes, 15,000 acres were set aside in 1897 for the mainte- 
nance of the law library. At the present time these lands yield 
an annual income from rents of about $600, which is used in 
the purchase of new books. 

An act to increase the State Library by adding a miscel- 
laneous collection of standard books was also passed by the 
Legislature in 1897, and 15,000 acres of land set aside, the 
income from which is used in the maintenance of a miscella- 
neous library. The nucleus of such a library, consisting of 
three thousand volumes, has been purchased and is now avail- 
able to the citizens of the state. Provision has also been made 
by the state for the establishment of county libraries, and in 
many counties such libraries are maintained for the benefit of 
the residents. Under the auspices of the Wyoming Historical 
Society have been collected many early books, papers and 
documents bearing upon the early history of Wyoming, which 
are open to inspection at the State Library. The collection 
of Wyoming minerals shown at the World's Fair, with the 
medals and diplomas awarded, are also upon exhibition at the 
capitol. 

In addition to the foregoing, Carnegie libraries have been 
constructed or are in course of construction at Cheyenne, Lar- 
amie, Evanston and Sheridan, and there are numerous circu- 
lating libraries kept up by public subscription. 



i 4 4 



The State oe Wyoming. 



Elevation of Cities and Mountains. 



CITY ELEVATION IN FEET 

Alcova 6,000 

Atlantic City 7,850 

Buffalo 4,600 

Basin . 3.700 

Battle 9,866 

Cambria S, 100 

Casper 5,101 

Carbon 6,821 

Cheyenne 6,050 

Cheyenne (Capitol) 6,101 

Cody 4,900 

Corbett 4,659 

Douglas 4,8x5 

Embar 5,900 

Encampment 7>3 22 

Evanston 6,759 

Fort Laramie 4> 2 7° 

Fort Steele 6,505 

Fort Washakie 5,462 

Fort Yellowstone 6,370 

Four Bear 6,500 

Garland 4,183 

Glendo . 4,7*6 

Glenrock 4,900 

Green River 6,077 



CITY ELEVATION IN FEET 

Hanna 6,788 

Hyattville 4,550 

Jackson Hole 0,620 

Jackson Lake 0,800 

Kirwin 9,500 

Lander 5,372 

Laramie 7,153 

Lovell 3,7oo 

Lusk 5,007 

Medicine Bow 6,562 

Meeteetse . 5,000 

Newcastle 4,3*9 

Otto 4,011 

Rambler 9,5oo 

Rawlins 6,744 

Rock Springs 6,260 

Rock Creek 6,704 

Sherman . 8,247 

Sheridan 3,738 

Saratoga 7,000 

Sundance 4,75o 

Thermopolis 4,350 

Ten Sleep 4,513 

Tie Siding 7,890 

Wheatland 4,700 



NAME. MOUNTAIN RANGE ELEVATION IN FEET 

Big Horn 8,000 to 12,000 

Bradley Peak Seminoe 9,500 

Bridger Peak 11,400 

Chimney Rock Wind River 11,853 

Cloud Peak Big Horn 12,500 

Alt. Doane Yellowstone 10,118 

Elk Mountain Medicine Bow 11,511 

Fremont's Peak Wind River 13,790 

Grand Encampment Park 11,003 

Grand Teton Teton 13,800 

Index Peak Yellowstone n,740 

Laramie Peak Laramie 11,000 

Laramie Range 7,000 to 9,000 

Medicine Peak Park 12,231 

Medicine Bow Range 8,000 to 12,000 

Mt. Moran Teton 12,000 

Park Range, in Wyoming 11,500 



Phlox Mountain Owl Creek 

Pilot Knob Yellowstone 

Ouien Hornet Uintah . . . . 

Sailor Mountain : 

Seminoe Mountains (highest) 

Washakie Needles 

Mt. Washburn 

Yount's Peak . Yellowstone 



9,136 
•ii,977 
• 9,30O 
. 10,046 
. 10,500 

12,252 
. 10,388 

12,250 



STATE OFFICERS AND BOARDS APPOINTED BY GOVERNOR 
Name. Office. Term Expires. PostoMce. 

William E. Mullen Attorney General April i, 1907. . .Cheyenne 

Clarence T. Johnston. State Engineer Feb. 18, 1909. . .Cheyenne 

Prince A. Gatchell. . .Adjutant General January, 1907.. .Cheyenne 

Noah Young Inspector Coal Mines, 

District No. 1 Feb. 20, 1907. . .Cheyenne 

A. E. Bradbury Inspector Coal Mines, 

District No. 2 Feb. 20, 1907... .Evanston 

D. C. Nowlin State Game Warden Feb. 20, 1907 Lander 

H. B. Henderson State Examiner Feb. 21, 1907. . .Cheyenne 

Mrs. Clara Bond State Librarian April 1, 1907. . .Cheyenne 

Henry C. Beeler State Geologist Feb. 21, 1909. . .Cheyenne 

G. T. Seabury State Veterinarian Feb. 18, 1907. . .Cheyenne 

Samuel H. Campbell. .Supt. Fish Hatcheries, 

District No. I . . . . Feb. 18, 1907 Laramie. 

C. W. Morgareidgc.Supt. Fish Hatcheries, 

District No. 2 Feb. iS, 1907... .Sheridan 

Ed W. Burke Food and Oil Commis'r. .March 31, 1907. Evanston 

BOARD OF LIVE STOCK COMMISSIONERS. 

Ora Haley Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Laramie 

Alexander Bowie Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Chugwater 

A. A. Spaugh Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Manville 

Thomas Durbin Secretary Cheyenne 

STATE BOARD OF SHEEP. COMMISSIONERS. 

Jacob Delf elder Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Lander 

Timothy Kinney Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Rock Springs 

J. M. Wilson Term expires Feb. 18, 1907 Douglas 

George S. Walker Secretary Cheyenne 

COMMISSIONERS OF PHARMACY. 

W. H. Edelman Term expires March 31, 1907 Sheridan 

Fred W. Roedel Term expires Feb. 16, 1909 Cheyenne 

Frank H. Eggleston Term expires Feb. 18, 1909 Laramie 

STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. 

Amos W. Barber, Sec. . .Term expires Feb. iS, 1909 Cheyenne 

J. L. Wicks Term expires Feb. 16, 1909 Evanston 

F. Horton Term expires Feb. 16, 1907 Newcastle 

STATE BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS. 

E. P. Roh'rbaugh, Pres. . .Term expires Feb. 17, 1907 Casper 

S. B. Miller, Secretary. . .Term expires Feb. 17, 1907. Laramie 

Oliver Chambers Term expires Feb. 17, 1907 Rock Springs 

BOARD OF CONTROL. 

(Superintendents' terms expire February 18, 1907.) 

Clarence T. Johnston. . . .(State Engineer, ex-officio) Cheyenne 

Pitt Covert .Supt. Water Division No. 1 Cheyenne 

Frank H. Stotts Supt. Water Division No. 2 Sheridan 

Lou Blakesley Supt. Water Division No. 3 Otto 

Walter B. Dunton Supt. Water Division No. 4 Rock Springs 

H. L- Pascall, Secretary 

LEWIS AND CLARK EXPOSITION COMMISSIONERS. 

B. B. Brooks, President (ex-officio) Cheyenne 

W. C. Deming, Secretary Cheyenne 

C. B. Richardson, Commissioner in Chief Cheyenne 

J. L. Baird Newcastle 

George E. Pexton Evanston 

B. C. Buff um Laramie 

BOARD OF DENTAL EXAMINERS. 

Dr. William Frackelton (four years) Sheridan 

Dr. Peter Appel (four years) Cheyenne 

Dr. W. C. Cunnington (two years) Evanston 




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LBJL '06 



